


the skies are grey

by bisexualbarry



Series: haunting memories [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Last of Us
Genre: Angst, Apocalypse, Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Harley Keener is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Minor Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Minor Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Zombie Apocalypse, it's not tony or peter though, like a lot lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-01-03 11:35:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 50,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21178760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisexualbarry/pseuds/bisexualbarry
Summary: Tony's not interested in lugging a fifteen-year-old across the country. Pepper's the one who accepted the deal, but she's gone and so is the group of Fireflies that they were supposed to meet. Peter reminds Tony too much of a child he once had, before everything went to shit. In their life, he can't afford to get attached to anybody anyway. He's already learned that the hard way.Peter struggles under the weight of the secrets of his life that just keep seeming to pile up. Weighed down by guilt, he follows Tony in a desperate attempt to do the right thing. The more they travel, Peter's tested time and time again. All he wants to do is get this over with, and maybe get some sleep.It's too bad that, in a world where danger lurks around every corner, neither of them get their way.





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> hello!! ive been wanting to do a tlou rewrite for a while now, so im pretty excited to get this one going (:
> 
> this fic will be a mixture of being a rewrite with a twist of my own since i didnt want to do a direct copy, lmao. so most things will be similar to the game, but not necessarily everything
> 
> i do also wish for people who havent played this game to be able to read and understand what's going on, so hopefully ill be able to tell it in such way (:
> 
> there will be plenty of character deaths throughout the story, but each character that dies usually doesn't last for more than a chapter, so i didnt think MCD warning was necessary, but! im still warning you guys now, haha
> 
> i apologize in advance for any and all errors!

There’s a familiarity to his movements. The simple way he moves around in the small space, always making those who watch him wait for the inevitable of him tripping over something. Yet he rarely ever does, and it never fails to amuse his friends and family. He hasn’t told anybody about what he’s working on yet, but his son likes to joke it’s yet another StarkPhone to compete with the newly released iPhone. 

Tony’s tinkering away on a small device in front of him; a StarkPad’s set up nearby for him to glance at as he works. It’s playing some mindless YouTube video that Harley recommended to him a few days ago. He knows that when he gets the time to watch it while he’s not in the lab, he’ll enjoy it more. For now, though, it’s nice background noise. It’s too late to blast his usual music. 

The door behind him opens and he turns to see Harley strolling in with something hidden behind his back. There’s a smirk on his face, and Tony barely remembers that his son’s supposed to be asleep. 

“You should be in bed,” Tony tells him, wiping his hands dry on a random rag on his work station. There’s sweat pooling on his forehead, and he absentmindedly wipes at it. “Why are you still awake? You have school tomorrow.” 

“I know, I know,” Harley’s quick to defend. “I’ve been waiting for you to come upstairs all day, but with it nearing midnight now, I came down here instead so I wouldn’t miss it.”

“Miss what?”

“Your birthday!” Harley laughs, like he can’t believe his father forgot his own birthday— again. When he moves his arms, he reveals what he was hiding behind his back. It’s a small gift, nothing wider than the size of his palm, and not very tall. Tony furrows his eyebrows when he sees it.

Instead of commenting on it, Tony reaches forward and takes the small gift from his son’s waiting hand. It’s wrapped in Christmas paper, making Tony snort in amusement. It’s nearly the end of September, and stores are stocking on Christmas in droves. It doesn’t surprise him that Harley finds amusement in it. When he carefully tears through it, he’s a little shocked at the familiarity of the box.

“Did Rhodey help you?” Tony asks, his voice quiet as he opens it. As he expects, in it is revealed to be a familiar looking watch. If not for the moving second hand, Tony might even go as far to assume it was the same exact watch he broke a few months earlier. “How the hell did you even afford this? You don’t have a job.”

Harley snickers. “Yeah, but my dad’s pretty rich.”

“Are you telling me I bought my own birthday gift?” Tony asks with a laugh, slipping it onto his wrist. “Thank you for this, though.”

Harley lightly kicks at the stool Tony’s sitting on. “Yeah, well. I got pretty tired of listening to you whine about your favorite watch being broken.”

There’s a warm feeling that spreads throughout Tony’s chest. It’s not something he’s willing to admit aloud, but the love he has for his son runs deep. Even from the first time he held the now fourteen-year-old, Tony knew the kid would make a big impact on his life. It’s a shame, Tony thinks, that Harley’s mom died in childbirth. After a quick night of fun, Tony never expected to be a father. But then Harley’s mom came waltzing back in, and for a quick moment, Tony thought he’d get the family life he never thought he’d have.

Of course, things never do seem to go his way.

While Tony’s lost in memories, Harley makes his way over to the couch Tony keeps in there. Harley has his own workstation in the lab, but often falls asleep on the couch. It’s a familiar sight when Tony shakes his head and sees his son dozing off. Given the late hour, Tony’s a little surprised Harley’s made it this far. His son may be a teenager, but he is never one to stay awake for hours at a time at night. That’s reserved for Tony.

Opening a drawer, Tony digs out the old and broken watch. The hands that no longer move are stuck in their last position, reading off a time that’s a few hours from now. He broke it while tinkering— much to no one’s surprise. It was given to him by his mother when he was young. Harley must’ve had a new one custom made to give to Tony. He can’t help but figure Rhodey must’ve shelled out for a good portion of it— Tony never even noticed. With a fond smile on his face, he tosses the old watch into his  _ ‘Spare Parts’ _ bin and adjusts his new one a bit more. With that, he finishes up what he’s working on.

It’s only an hour later that Tony finally calls it quits for the night. Harley’s fast asleep on the couch with no indication of moving. Like many nights prior, Tony picks him up and lumbers upstairs to the boy’s room. After tucking him in and pressing a kiss to his forehead, Tony makes his way into his own bedroom. He takes a hot shower and throws on a random pair of sweats and a tank top. He really needs to do laundry soon. Most of his t-shirts are covered in sweat and grease. Even as he’s settling into bed, he can hear Rhodey’s voice in his head, scolding him for not doing it sooner.

Even though it’s nearing two in the morning, Tony’s still wide awake. He flips to a random channel and starts watching whatever he’s landed on. It’s some history show, and it’s soothing enough to make Tony drowsy as he watches it. However, as soon as he’s about to turn off the TV, his show’s interrupted by a news report.

_ “We apologize for interrupting your program, but the recent outbreak of the  _ _ Cordyceps Infection has reached frighteningly high numbers. A recent slew of patients admitted into the Jackson Memorial Hospital have been reported to ‘act crazy’ and attack hospital workers. It’s currently unknown as to why the patients are attacking, but so far, it’s only the ones who have been infected with this new disease. Hospital workers who have made it out of the hospital after being attacked reported that the patients didn’t appear to look fully human. One even spoke of being attacked by a patient whose heart had stopped not even an hour prior. Could this infection being killing its hosts? Even researchers looking into this cannot confirm nor deny how contagious this is yet. As of right now, this seemingly deadly disease is only happening in larger cities. No one knows quite yet how it’s spreading, but even if you don’t live in a city, be careful. Thank you.” _

His history show comes back on after the report. There’s a slight shake in his hands that he can’t deny. Tony’s heard of the infection, but didn’t think much of it. One of his business partners mentioned having a team of his own looking into it. They haven’t been able to find much, but he’s heard through the grapevine that the researchers think it started from a bad shipment of crops from South America. Swallowing thickly, Tony shuts the TV off. Though he’s more awake now than before he turned on the TV, Tony forces himself to lay down and close his eyes. Actually falling asleep is just an added bonus.

It feels like he’s just closed his eyes when he’s awoken again by a knock on the front door. It isn’t the knock itself that wakes him, but rather FRIDAY alerting him of someone being at the front door. Tony hopes she didn’t wake Harley as he makes his way to the door. Blinking away the fuzz from his eyes, he opens the door. He wakes nearly instantly when he opens it as sees a blood covered Rhodey standing on the other side.

“What the hell?” he manages, sidestepping so Rhodey could walk inside.

“Have you seen the news?” Rhodey asks him, heading to the kitchen, hastily cleaning the blood off as best he could using the sink. “Where’s Harley?”

“He’s asleep. And yeah, I caught some of it earlier, what…” Tony grabs Rhodey’s arm. “What the hell happened to you?”

“The whole city’s in chaos, man. The infection is worse than everybody thought.” Rhodey blindly looks through the drawers and cabinets, shoving random stuff into a backpack he produces out of thin air. “I was on my way over when a person infected with the damn thing came out of nowhere. I nearly got bit myself when another person showed up and shot it in the face. I got blood all over me.”

“We gotta leave the city,” Tony says urgently. “We can’t stay here.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” Rhodey’s voice is sharp, and he takes a deep breath before continuing. “Just get a bag ready so we can leave.”

Nodding, Tony heads upstairs to the bedroom. Instead of going to his own, however, he goes into Harley’s to wake him up. “Harley, buddy, you gotta get up.”

Harley groans, turning towards his dad with a grouchy look on his face. “It’s so early,” he mumbles, eyes already closing again.

“I know, bud. C’mon, Harls, wakey wakey.” Tony grabs his backpack and takes out all his school stuff and throws it haphazardly on the bed. “Here, pack some clothes or whatever else you want to put in it. Hurry up, kiddo.”

Though he still doesn’t understand what’s going on, Harley still does what he’s told. While he’s doing that, Tony goes into his own room to pack a backpack of his own. There are photo albums he really wishes he could take. As it is, his bag is nearly bursting with the amount of clothes he’s stuffed into it. When it’s packed and zipped, he throws a strap over his shoulder, not caring about how stuffed it looks. Harley’s waiting for him by the doorway, and follows behind him like a lost puppy.

Rhodey’s cleaned up since Tony saw him last. Harley doesn’t have to see his uncle covered in blood, and he’s thankful for the small victories. After double checking that his watch is still on his wrist, Tony leads the two down to the garage. He picks a more practical car for them and they all pile into it.

“What’s going on?” Harley asks from the backseat. None of them are wearing seatbelts despite it likely being a good idea. Tony internally excuses it by using something else as being far more important.

Tony’s driving recklessly while Rhodey flips through stations. Neither answer the boy as they try navigating through the busy streets filled with panicking people.

“Dammit,” Rhodey curses, turning off the radio in frustration. “Nothing’s coming in. Swear everybody was playing the news a minute ago.”

“Towers may be overloaded,” Tony suggests. “Everybody’s trying to get news out.”

“That doesn’t help us now, does it?”

Tony opens his mouth to respond, but there’s a loud explosion near by, shaking the car from its force. Harley yelps at the sound, and there’s a clenching in Tony’s gut that’s more than just uncomfortable. It’s  _ unsettling _ . Worrying.

“You know the infection that’s been spreading, Harley?” Rhodey asks, glancing toward the said boy. “Turns out, it does bad things. Pretty sure I heard someone comparing it to a zombie infection.”

“Zombies? You really believe that?” Tony asks in disbelief, an eyebrow raised.

“Have you not seen one of them yourself? They’re fucking terrifying. I can see the comparison.” Rhodey lets out a breath. “Listen, we need to leave Miami. The news was saying it’s happening worse in large cities, so we need to get out.”

“We forgot Dum-E,” Harley jokes weakly, trying to lighten the tense mood.

“He’s too heavy,” Tony says distractedly. “Besides, we’d need to keep charging him, and there’s no telling what’ll happen.”

“Don’t think like that, Tones,” Rhodey says firmly. He takes a deep breath. “Look, I know we’re all freaking out here, but we need to calm down and think this through calmly. We can’t assume the worse.”

“We’ll have to figure out a better plan once we’re out of the city,” Tony says. “Goddammit.” In front of them, cars were backed up bumper to bumper on the highway heading out of Miami.

“Looks like everybody else had the same thought,” Rhodey points out, sighing. “We’ll never get out of here with this kind of traffic.”

Tony turns around, seeing if he can back up. He curses when he sees the line has stacked up behind them in that short time. “We’re stuck here.”

Suddenly, there’s screaming from up ahead, making all three males jump. The sound of gunshots fills the air as hospital patients run throughout the streets, a manic desperation to their movements as they attack cars. There’s military personnel chasing after them, shooting them down.

“We have to get out of here,” Tony says, his tone urgant. “Harley, grab your bag. Whatever you do, do not let go of my hand.”

“Okay, Dad,” Harley replies, frightened.

There are other people fleeing their cars. So many people are hysterical, driven by fear as they run in sporadic directions. Tony’s gripping Harley’s hand tightly, and for once, the teen doesn’t complain about having to hold his father’s hand. Rhodey leads them off the road and towards a small section of nearby greenery. It isn’t much to hide in, but they should be temporarily safe.

Everywhere around them are screams and gunshots. Explosions pop up from time to time, and Tony tries to lead the small family away from most of that. There’s chaos everywhere, and no matter how hard they try, they won’t be able to fully get away from it until they make it out of the city.

“Are we alright?” Harley asks, his palm sweaty against Tony’s hand. He’s gripping back just as tightly as Tony is. “Are we sick?”

“No, kiddo, we’re not. And we’ll be better once we’re away from Miami. Let’s keep walking.”

Around them, the sounds of military vehicles rushing by sound out. There’s sirens and honking, angry shouts as cars get pushed away without a care in the world. Tony can feel Harley shuffling a bit closer to him, and he actively must resist the urge to just pick the teen up. For one, he can’t. And second, it’ll only slow them down.

“Please evacuate to the quarantine zone!” a passing military vehicle announces. “If you are wandering outside of it, you are in danger. Please evacuate to the quarantine zone!”

“They’re setting up a quarantine?” Rhodey asks, eyebrows furrowing. “That seems a bit sudden. Do you think they’ve been preparing for this?”

“It’s possible. There’s no way I’m heading there, though. I don’t trust those fuckers,” Tony mutters. “They’re trying to corral a bunch of people into a small area in the midst of chaos. I know there’s no such thing as a good time for this, but all they’re doing is causing more panic.”

“Tones…”

“Look, just… let’s just keep walking, alright?”

The wind is picking up around them, chilling Tony slightly through the threadbare sweats and thin jacket he’s wearing. As if on cue, Harley shivers next to him, and Tony moves to wrap his arm around Harley’s shoulder instead and pulls him close.

Another military vehicle comes barreling down the road, but instead of continuing on, it slows when it approaches the trio. It spouts the same lines as before, but Tony ignores them and subtly pushes Harley forward to keep walking.

“Hey! Don’t ignore me, sir. I’m just trying to keep you safe!” the man yells out. Tony can hear him hop from the truck and come walking towards them.

“Piss off,” Tony tells him, which just angers the man more.

“I’ve been given orders to shoot anybody I believe to be infected. Give me anymore lip and I already have a good excuse,” the man says, glaring at Tony.

Tony glares back, and it’s Harley’s hand on his arm that keeps him from doing something drastic. “We’re trying to leave the damn city. Leave us alone.”

Military man opens his mouth to spew off something else when there’s a loud groaning coming from the area behind the group. They all turn and see three clearly infected people running towards them. Tony can’t help but freeze when he sees them. It’s the closest he’s been to anybody with the cordyceps infection, and he finds it scarier than he thought.

The military man must be thinking along the same train of thought. His eyes are wide and he’s paled significantly. Like he has yet to actually see anybody with the infection. In desperation, all he does is raise his gun and shoot wildly, hoping to hit them. Tony can feel a stray bullet hit in the arm.

Thankfully, the infected are hit and killed, going down like sacks of bricks onto the ground. Tony releases his hold on Harley to yell at the military man for not being more careful with his shots.

“Tony,” Rhodey speaks up, interrupting the yelling. He sounds serious enough that it makes Tony pause and whip his head towards his friend.

Rhodey’s kneeling on the ground, his hands covered in blood. When Tony looks, he sees it came from his son, who had been shot in the stomach.

“No,” Tony breathes out, dropping to his knees. He can hear the sound of the truck hurrying away, though he pays it no mind. Harley’s crying, and clinging onto his dad when Tony gently picks him up. “I know, kiddo. I know it hurts.”

“Dad,” he cries, tears quickly streaming down his face.

“Stay with me, Harls, please.” Tony’s crying himself, and he feels like his heart is tearing in two as his eyes never leave Harley’s face.

Quicker than Tony would ever like, Harley soon goes still, the crying quieting down. Tony’s only increases as he holds his now deceased son in his arms, holding him close. Everything else fades away, and he no longer cares what happens to him. His world has already been taken away from him.


	2. summer, part one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if anybody comes off as too ooc (:
> 
> beginning bit belongs to naughty dog. i copied it straight from intro credits
> 
> also im writing this fic for nano, so hopefully there wont be too big of a gap between chapters!!

_ “The number of deaths has passed two hundred. The Governor has called a state of emergency…” _

_ “There were hundreds and hundreds of bodies lining the streets…” _

_ “Panic spread worldwide after a leaked report from the World Health Organization showed that the latest vaccination tests have failed.” _

_ “...with the bureaucrats out of power, we can finally take the necessary steps to…” _

_ “Los Angeles is now the latest city to be placed under martial law.” _

_ “All residents are required to report to their designated quarantine—” _

_ “Riots have continued for a third consecutive day, and winter rations are at an all time low.” _

_ “A group calling themselves the Fireflies have claimed responsibility for both attacks.” _

_ “Their public charter calls for the return of all branches of government.” _

_ “Demonstrations broke out following the execution of six more alleged Fireflies.” _

** _“You can still rise with us. Remember when you’re lost in the darkness… look for the light. Believe in the Fireflies.”_ **

**~*~**

** _Twenty years later…_ **

Tony’s limbs feel heavier than normal. Even after stretching this morning, there’s still a dull ache in his joints. He can’t help but huff softly, rubbing one shoulder as he makes his way to Pepper’s apartment. It helps the ache a little, but without Pepper helping him out, he’ll have to deal with the soreness in the meantime.

There’s arguments sounding out around him, a constant buzz of talking that feels familiar. It’s not unusual to hear anymore. Nowadays, quiet means danger. It always makes his ears ring whenever it does happen. He doesn’t like it anymore than the next person. Today, following an argument, the sound of a gun going off startles him a bit. It wasn’t anything out of the norm, but around where he was, it wasn’t a daily occurrence. People normally kept their disputes outside, and nobody dared waste bullets on petty arguments anymore.

Pepper’s building came into view as he turns the corner. There’s a couple kids playing out on the street in front of it. The ball they’re kicking is rather deflated, and doesn’t have much of a bounce, but they’re still enjoying themselves. Tony smiles a little as he passes them, glad there’s still hope sparkling in their eyes before reality catches up with them.

Pepper’s already waiting for him when he gets up there. There’s a shallow cut on her cheek that she’s cleaning when he walks through the door, a small pile of ration cards sitting on the table in front of her.

“Thought you were going to wait for me before making the drop off,” he comments, sliding into the other chair. He takes the rag from her and gently dabs at the wound.

“You overslept. I couldn’t wait on you forever,” Pepper replies. “Don’t worry, though, the deal went off without a hitch. We’ve got enough to last us the next few months.”

“Then what happened to your face?” Tony asks, raising an eyebrow in question. He leans back and tosses the used rag onto the table, the rag no longer wet enough to make much of a sound as it lands. Pepper gets up and heads into the small adjoined kitchen.

“Just… some stupid people that I ran into on my way back. I was meeting up with one of my intels when we got jumped.” Pepper pours herself a glass of water from a jug she keeps in the fridge. She takes a sip before sighing and leaning against the counter. “Don’t worry, my intel and I were the only ones to make it out.”

“Any new word?”

“Yeah. You wouldn’t believe what our boy Robert’s up to.” Pepper finishes off the glass and leaves it on the counter. She frowns and walks closer to Tony, an angry look in her eye. “He sold our guns.”

Tony’s eyebrows raised high as he stood up quickly. “You’re shitting me.”

“Nope. The boys who jumped us let it slip that Robert sent them. It seems to me, he’s trying to get rid of us before we catch wind of what he’s up to.” Pepper’s smirk is dangerous. Tony has a feeling she’s been thinking on a plan while she waited for him. It makes him realises she’s far more calculated than he’s ever given her credit for.

“When should we leave?”

It doesn’t take them very long to track down Robert. He’s a weasel in every sense of the word, but he’s also predictable. He keeps guard over a building at the docks, and he’s stupid enough to stay there despite Tony and Pepper having been there before. They aren’t as welcome as they have been in the past. Dodging bullets and fists become second nature as they try to get to the main building.

Robert’s also a coward, as it appears. He has no issues sending his men after the duo, not caring in the slightest as they’re killed. Tony would feel bad for killing so many men if it hadn’t become a way of life for everybody. _ Kill or be killed_. Survival of the fittest, and all that. Tony isn’t exactly prideful of his killer aim or well aimed hits, but it’s a muted guilt. He can’t feel guilty, or he could be killed himself.

Robert’s got himself cornered in an alley, of all places. The gate ahead of him is locked, and he’s not strong enough to lift himself over it. Pepper breaks his leg with a pipe when he tries slipping past them. A stupid move on his part.

“Where are our guns, Robert?” she asks, pointing the pipe at him. “I heard you’ve sold them.”

“I owed somebody!” Robert cries out, wallowing on the ground in pain.

“They weren’t yours to sell,” Pepper continues, keeping her voice even. It’s creepy to watch her in action. “Now, I might’ve been more forgiving about all this, if you hadn’t sent people after us. Frankly, that just pissed me off more than anything.”

Not for the first time, Tony watches as Robert folds under Pepper’s glare. “I sold them to the Fireflies!” he admits, cowering as Pepper raises the pipe again.

“You what?” she hisses out, her posture growing more angry before she lands another hit on his other leg. Robert cries out again. “You owed us more.”

“Look, I’ll help you get them back, promise,” Robert tries. “Fuck the Fireflies, right? I know where they’re keeping them, I’ll lead you right to the stash.”

“I’d rather not try to get myself killed because of your stupidity,” Pepper states before shooting Robert in the head.

Pepper angrily throws the pipe down the alleyway. It clangs noisily against the broken concrete before rolling to a stop. For a second, Tony wonders if Pepper is going to go down to grab it and throw it again, with the way anger is rolling off of her.

“Fuck,” she curses, pushing loose pieces of her red hair out of her eyes. “Now we’ve got nothing to trade with.”

“What do you suggest we do?” Tony asks, kicking weakly at Robert’s arm.

“I don’t know. Find the Fireflies, I guess.” Pepper huffs, still glaring down at Robert’s body.

“You won’t have to look very far,” a feminine voice sounds out. They both look up to see a vibrant redhead open the gate from the other side. She’s clutching her side, and Tony notices a gash.

“What are you doing all the way out here with an injury like that?” Tony points to where the woman is holding onto a blood soaked rag to her side.

She glares a little at Tony. “I need to speak to Robert. It’s urgent.”

Pepper gestures to the dead man on the ground. “He’s right here, Natasha. All yours for the taking.”

“I needed him alive,” Natasha growls, glaring at the gun still in Pepper’s hand.

“Shame. It’s too bad he sold our guns to you, or else he would be here for you to talk to.” Pepper looks far too delighted at telling Natasha this. Natasha looks murderous, so Tony quickly steps between.

“Okay, okay. Let’s not do this out here,” he tells them, glancing at the both of them. “The last thing we need right now is to accidentally cause more attention to us than we need.”

Natasha sighs, glare softening. “I needed information from him.”

Pepper crosses her arms over her chest, her own look of glee turning into curiosity. “What kind?”

Natasha smirks a little. “Always looking for a way to benefit yourself, huh?” She sighs. “I need something smuggled out of the city. Robert was the best person for information regarding that.”

Pepper and Tony exchange a look. “We’ve been known to smuggle a thing or two,” Tony says. “But we’ll need more information.”

Natasha’s face twists up, but she keeps her mouth shut. She looks around a moment before letting out a sigh. “Alright, but not out in the open. C’mon, I know a place where we can talk.”

Despite the two of them being hesitant, they follow Natasha as she leads them around to a nearby building. There’s overturned boxes everywhere, everything in the building coated in a fine layer of dust. The building must not be used much anymore, Tony thinks, if it’s already this dusty. Not that it takes a long time for the dust to settle.

Leaning against one of the overturned crates, Natasha lets out a soft huff as her cut is agitated. “Look… you two aren’t people I would normally trust with this. But, I’m desperate. I needed this cargo out by yesterday.”

“To where?” Pepper asks, leaning against a nearby steel pillar. Her face is calculating.

“The capitol building. There will be a group of Fireflies there waiting for the delivery. All you have to do is bring the cargo there, and come back. Simple as that.”

“That’s not exactly simple.” Tony lets out a humorless laugh. “Not only do we have to smuggle it out, which means passing a shit ton of armed guards, but also lug it halfway across the city. Do you know how many infected are outside the zone?”

“I’m not an idiot, Tony. I know what I’m asking of you two.” She makes a face as her injury is agitated again. “Will you do it or not?”

“Only if you do something for us.” Pepper raises an eyebrow. “I want our guns back.”

Natasha rolls her eyebrows. “Fine. I’m not happy about this, but if you’re willing to do it, I’ll give you back your guns.”

“I want to see them,” Pepper says firmly, standing up straight and walking closer to the injured woman. “I don’t exactly trust you.”

“The same can be said for you,” Natasha replies evenly. “But fine. I guess that’s fair enough.” She stands up herself and readjusts the rag. “I’ll show you what you’ll be smuggling.”

“Why can’t you just tell us?” Tony asks, but they follow her anyway.

“Seeing is believing,” is her answer.

Pepper and Tony exchange another look. Tony’s cautious about the whole thing, but if it gets them their guns back, then he can’t complain. They need them if they want the trade they’re doing later on in the week to go smoothly.

Natasha leads them to another building, though she has difficulty opening the door to this one. Either her tolerance has lessened, or her injury’s gotten worse the more she’s moved. Tony helps her open the door and has to grab onto her so she doesn’t end up face-planting on the floor.

“Hey!”

There’s a knife coming towards him suddenly, but Pepper easily intercepts and shoves the kid’s arm away. Tony helps Pepper sit on a nearby box before staring at the young teen who tried to stab him.

“Peter,” Natasha speaks up. “They’re here to help, not hurt.”

Peter’s look of anger quickly melts to concern when he sees Natasha’s injury. “What happened?” he asks, hurrying over towards her. His hands hover around the injury a moment before he’s pulling the bloody rag away and producing another one to put over the wound. “How’d this happen?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Natasha tells him. “It’s fixable.”

Tony eyes the boy a minute before he feels something click. “We’re smuggling _ him_?” Quickly, he turns to Pepper. “No way in hell.”

Pepper’s face softens when their eyes meet, and she tilts her head to a spot nearby so they can talk. Natasha takes the hint and starts talking to Peter while the two smugglers talk.

“I’m not smuggling a kid, Pep,” Tony tells her quietly.

Pepper’s brown eyes search his own. “I get it,” she says, giving him a small smile. “I really do, Tony.” She looks off to the side towards Peter before looking back at him. “We can’t turn this down, though. Just… think of him as cargo, alright? No need to get to know him any if we’re just taking him across town. Think you can handle that?”

“I have so far, haven’t I?” he mumbles, but softens as Pepper lightly squeezes his hand.

“I’ll do most of the talking then, alright?”

“No attachment?”

“No attachment.”

They share soft smiles before Pepper’s turning back towards the other pair. “I still want to see the guns before anything else.”

“I can do that,” Natasha agrees easily. “I can get patched up there, too.” She then points at Peter. “But he isn’t going to that part of town. It’s too dangerous.”

“Tony can look after him in the meantime, then,” Pepper says easily, much to the annoyance of Tony.

However, before he can voice said annoyance, there’s another voice speaking up. “No way,” Peter protests. “Nat, I can’t go with a stranger.”

“You were going to before, what’s the difference?” Natasha’s voice is sharp, and Peter takes a step back. “Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. Look, it’s just for a little bit. Once they take you to the capitol building, you’ll be back with the Fireflies. Alright?”

Peter deflates. “Okay,” he says, his voice soft.

Tony barely waits for the teen as he’s walking out of the building. The only way he knows the kid is even following him is the sound of hurried steps trying to catch up behind him. Eventually, Peter’s next to him, trailing slightly behind as not to crowd him.

“Have you smuggled things before?” Peter asks as they walk to Tony’s apartment.

“Plenty of times, yeah,” Tony answers. “Never people, though. Especially kids. This is definitely a first.”

“I’m fifteen. I’m not a kid,” Peter protests.

Tony snorts. “Yeah, alright.”

“I’ve never been outside the zone,” Peter speaks up again after a few minutes. It seems the kid hates any stretch of silence. Tony really hopes that won’t bite them in the ass later down the road. “I’ve always wondered what it was like.”

“Not much different,” Tony admits. “A lot of infected. No military on your ass around every corner, though.”

“No peace,” Peter concludes. “That I’m used to, though. Especially back in the military school. God, those guys were so strict. You don’t know how many times I got stuck with cleaning toilets as a punishment.”

Tony can’t help but chuckle. “How the hell do you manage that?”

Peter suddenly goes quiet. “Different things,” he answers.

He’s quiet the rest of the way.

Pepper wakes him up when she gets back. It’s dark out, and Peter’s getting up from the chair by the window. He’s putting something into his backpack, and Tony thinks it may be a book.

“Hey,” she says, handing him a gun when he sits up. “The load’s all there. Plus some. Natasha said it was payment for what we’re doing.”

“Our stuff back isn’t enough?” Tony jokes, checking the gun cartridge before clicking the safety on and putting it into its holster.

“I guess she’s more desperate than we realised.” Pepper turns to Peter and hands him a gun. “Here. Only for emergencies.”

“Now wait—”

Pepper shoots him a look. “Emergencies, Tony. With an extra person following us around, giving him a gun isn’t a bad idea.”

Peter smirks, double checking that the safety is on before tucking it into the waistband of his jeans. Tony rolls his eyes, but follows Pepper out the back way of the apartment. As they’re on their way out, Peter migrates closer to Pepper, who has zero qualms about the teen sticking close to her.

“Stick close to us once we’re out there,” Pepper tells him once they’re at the entrance to the tunnel out. “We won’t be safe until we reach the downtown area.”

“Okay,” Peter replies, nodding. He hovers closer to Pepper after the instructions, if possible.

The tunnel is slick from the rain filtering in. Tony nearly slips a couple times, but catches himself. The minute they step outside, Peter’s eyes seem to widen instantly.

“Wow,” he breathes out, looking around with a smile. He doesn’t seem to mind the rain. “I’m outside.”

Pepper’s trying her best not to smile herself. “It’s even better once we’re away from the walls more.” She pulls her hair into a ponytail before it can get even more wet. Though there’s still loose pieces sticking to her face and neck. “C’mon, through here.”

Tony leads them to a small path up the side of the ditch. The mud’s slick under their feet, but they manage to make it to the top. Just as they’re about to head towards the way to downtown, a couple soldiers come out of nowhere.

“Hands where I can see them,” one of them says, pointing a gun straight at Tony.

They all put their hands in the air and the soldier not pointing a gun at them kicks them in the back of the knees until they’re all kneeling on the ground. Peter’s on the end, and Tony can see him squirming uncomfortably. Tony’s knees feel cold from the mud seeping in, but he ignores it as there’s suddenly a small needle jabbing into the side of his neck. He hisses at the feeling, more because it was unexpected than anything. Peter’s next, and suddenly he’s a lot more nervous than before. Tony sees the device being stuck into his neck and pulled out. What comes next, he doesn’t expect.

Peter takes out his pocket knife and jabs it into the soldier’s thigh. The man yells out in pain and drops the device. There’s shooting coming from the other soldier, which Pepper shoots down. The other one is aiming at Peter, but Tony tackles him and shoots him before the teen can be shot at.

“Holy shit,” Peter breathes out, scrambling back. “I thought we were going to, like, tie them up or something.”

Tony’s focus is suddenly on the dropped device. He picks it up and feels him grow angry when the bright red words of _ ‘infected’ _ flash across the screen. “What the fuck?”

“What?” Pepper asks. In response, he tosses the device at her. “Oh my god.”

“Why the hell are we smuggling an infected kid?” Tony asks Peter angrily. It’s nearly a shout, and Peter backs up more but stops before he could go tumbling back down the ditch.

“I can explain,” he says quickly, holding out a hand.

“Does Natasha know?” Tony snarls.

“Yes, but—”

“She’s setting us up,” Tony says to Pepper. “There’s no way she’s not.”

“Tony—”

Pepper’s cut off by the sound of more voices. There’s bright lights accompanying them, so it’s only safe to assume it’s soldiers investing the sound of gunshots. Pepper gestures for Peter to get up and gently pushes him forward. Tony frowns at the action, but quickly follows as to not get caught.

Once they make their way through an abandoned underground tunnel to avoid more soldiers, they’re on the outskirts of downtown. Tony turns to glare at Peter, who’s still looking shaken up by what happened.

“Did you two ever plan on letting us in on this?” Tony demands. “Or were we supposed to figure this out on our own once you turned?”

“I got bit, yes, but I’m not going to turn,” Peter says. He rolls up one of sleeves to reveal a bite mark near the inside of his elbow. “It’s three weeks old.”

“That’s impossible, people turn within the first two days,” Pepper denies, but she’s eyeing the mark.

“Why would I lie to you about this?” Peter’s desperate, holding his arm out towards the two. “What would Natasha gain from setting you up?”

“For one, getting a goddamn infected out of the zone,” Tony points out. “You’re out of her hair, so it’ll fall to us to take care of the problem. That isn’t if you kill us first.”

“I swear it’s three weeks old,” Peter insists. “Natasha nearly shot me when I showed her. It took until three days passed and I hadn’t turned yet for her to believe me.”

“So why’s she want us to take you to the capitol building?” Pepper asks.

“I don’t know, she won’t tell me. Something about a Firefly hospital somewhere out west.”

Tony lets out a bark of laughter. “My god. She’s still trying to make a cure.”

Peter swallows thickly. “I didn’t ask for this, Tony,” he says, rolling his sleeve back down.

“Oh, I’m sure.” He runs a hand down his face. “Fuck. This shit just gets more and more complicated.”

“I’ll be out of your hair by tomorrow,” Peter continues. “You’ll get your guns and be on your merry way.”

“The kid makes a point, Tony,” Pepper speaks up. “It’s just until tomorrow.”

Tony stares up at the sky a moment before throwing his hands up in defeat. “Fine, fine. But if he turns, I get to shoot.”

Pepper rolls her eyes, but doesn’t comment. Peter gives him a dirty look before following behind Pepper. With the teen’s back to him, Tony can’t help but childishly stick his tongue out at him.

Downtown is still in shambles from when the military bombed it years ago. In hopes to clear out the infected from around the Boston quarantine zone, they bombed everything. Buildings and streets collapsed, sitting broken and tattered. Over time, nature had taken back over, growing over the broken asphalt and crumbling concrete. Steel, rusted from rain and exposure to the elements, threatened to bend and break around them.

The three of them take careful steps as they walk further into the destroyed area. They come to a stop at the edge of a large drop, the bottom of it filling with the rain still coming down around them.

“This was downtown?” Peter asks, his eyes taking in everything. There’s an element of curiosity in his eyes that Tony doesn’t see much of anymore. It’s refreshing, at the very least. “What was it like?”

“Busy,” Pepper answers him. “These roads used to be filled with people and cars going to and from the main city. Boston used to be a big city back before the infection. All of these buildings were always full of people.”

“You never get used to seeing them empty,” Tony adds, his tone turning sad. He clears his throat. “We can cut through the building over here to get to where we need. There’s no way across this cavern.”

Peter’s head is still on a swivel to take everything in. Pepper seems to have no problems answering his questions, making Tony smile a little at the thought that she would be a great mother one day.

“It’s just… so different from inside the zone,” Peter says, letting his fingers run gently over an old desk. They come away coated in a thick layer of dirt and dust. “It’s… quiet.”

“Quiet isn’t always a good thing,” Pepper replies, looking through the drawers in the room they were in. The building Tony had pointed to ended up being an office building. It had a pretty steady tilt to one side, but still stood steadily enough for them to make their way through. “It usually means you’re being watched.”

“Even here? I didn’t think anybody would camp this close to the zone.” Peter furrows his eyebrows. “If you’re this close, wouldn’t you just head in?”

“Not always. The security surrounding the wall is insanely tight. It took Tony and I years to get a safe way in and out. And even then, it took too much bribing and a lot of gunfire.” Pepper sets down a photo she was looking at. It was of a young couple holding a newborn baby. Tony only wonders what is going through her mind.

“I don’t think there will be much of use here,” Tony says, closing a cabinet door. “It’s been picked clean.”

“Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing.” Pepper sighs softly. “C’mon, Peter.”

They’re walking down one of the hallways when they come across a dead infected infused to the door they need to go through. Tony grimaces, but reaches forward anyway to pry it off so they can get through.

“What the hell is _ that_?” Peter asks, face scrunching up in disgust.

“It’s a clicker,” Pepper answers. “It’s what happens when you’re infected for more than a year.”

“What’s wrong with its face?” Peter stares down at. He crouches to get a closer look, and he nearly touches it when Pepper puts a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

“It’s the infection. Once it grows all over the brain, it starts going outwards over the rest of your body. By this point, a person will become blinded. They see making a series of clicks.”

“Like echolocation?” Peter snorts a little. “They turn into bats.”

Pepper smiles. “Tony and I have discovered four different stages of infected. Though, we haven’t come across any of the fourth one. That one we only learned about through a friend.”

“What are the stages?” Peter’s still looking at the clicker as he asks. Tony doesn’t bother trying to get them to get a move on. If anything, this lesson could save the kid’s life at some point.

“Well.” Pepper stands up, wincing as her joints cracked. “The first one we call runner. We’re not sure what exactly they’re obsessed with, but they run after prey. It’s just after the infection sets in after initial contamination.”

“I just think it’s the fungus trying to spread to other hosts,” Tony says, leaning against a wall. “I mean, it spreads through bites and spores, it would be a logical guess.”

Peter nods in agreement. “Yeah, I can see that.” He then turns to Pepper. “What’s the next one?”

“The next one we call a stalker. By this point, more time has passed, so the infected person has become smarter when going after its prey. Not quite a clicker yet, but it’s still partially blinded. I believe it relies more on smell than sight like runners do.”

“They stalk their prey.” Peter smirks. “A little on the nose, don’t you think?”

Pepper lightly flicks Peter’s ear. “Shush, you. It works.”

Peter stands up and looks between the two adults. “And the last one? The one you two haven’t come across yet?”

“The friend who told us about them calls them bloaters,” Tony supplies. “Apparently, it’s what happens if an infected person reaches ten years after being infected. Like a dead person, their body bloats and the fungus grows all around them. Completely covering the body. They’re completely blind like clickers, but they’re not as easy to take out. The fungus becomes like an armor.”

“Which is why when most people see any infected, they take them out,” Pepper adds. “While they’re still more vulnerable.”

“You can still kill bloaters, though, right?” Peter looks nervous as he asks this.

“It takes more effort, but yes.” Tony shrugs. He doubts there are too many out there in the world. “Once you break off anybody’s armour, they’re still ripe for an attack.”

Peter scrunches his nose. “Gross. You just made me think of infected like pimples.”

“Both are annoying, right?” Tony jokes, smiling a little. He then quickly drops it and stands up straight. “Alright, lesson over. Let’s get out of here in case that one has buddies we haven’t found yet.”

They have to deal with a few infected on the way. Peter gets to hear a clicker for the first time, which clearly seems to leave him a bit shaken. He doesn’t say anything, though, instead taking the lessons Pepper is giving him to heart. Not once does he ever take his gun out, instead clinging onto the small pocket knife in his hands.

The capitol building isn’t too far away now, but an old semi blocks the road in front of them. A tree has grown around it, deterring any thoughts of just climbing over it. Peter’s the one to point out the nearby museum, and they wander over to it.

“I’ve always wanted to go to a museum,” Peter says. “I read about them in books all the time, but I never know what I’m supposed to imagine.”

“Well, usually, they’re a lot cleaner,” Tony drawls. “The artifacts are also usually on their designated spots. It seems some people with sticky fingers took advantage of downtown being cleared out before the bombing to swipe some things.”

Pepper picks up an old vase. “This looks like it was from the late 1800’s,” she comments, wiping off the dust to inspect it more closely.

“No way,” Peter says in amazement, smiling as he peers down at said vase. “Is stuff in museums always this old?”

“Or older.” Pepper hands the teen the vase for him to look at. “Depends on the one you go to. Although, they never let you touch any of it. One upside, I guess.”

“I wish I could take this with,” Peter says quietly, running his hands along the designs. “It’s so beautiful.”

“If there’s something smaller, I’ll look the other way.” Pepper winks good naturedly at him, causing Peter to grin.

He gently sets the vase down on sturdy enough looking desk. Although, he trips on a floorboard, and the movement shakes the desk. They all watch as the vase goes falling onto the floor.

“Oops?” Peter’s cheeks dust pink as he hurries quickly into the next room. Pepper and Tony both share a smirk before following after him.

Peter’s still looking around at everything that’s left, even reading what was left of some of the details of some of the things. He finds an old hand mirror and Tony watches in amusement as Peter just stares at his reflection.

“Not used to seeing yourself?” Tony asks, raising an eyebrow.

Peter startles, nearly dropping the mirror. “No, no. I know what I look like. It’s just… I didn’t know people could carry around mirrors. Wouldn’t that come across as vain?”

Tony shrugs. “Everybody’s different,” is his answer. “Plus, people use mirrors for various reasons.”

He turns away after that, but out of the corner of his eye, he watches as Peter slips it into his backpack.

“I never did ask how you got bit,” Pepper comments as they make their way to the floor above. “As far as I’m aware, there aren’t any infected in the zone.”

Peter’s cheeks color again. “A friend and I used to sneak into a mall near where the military school is,” he answers. “We were exploring it since nobody really goes in there anyway. We were, uh, dancing to some music playing when a bunch of them came out of nowhere. They chased us, and we both got bit.”

“But you ended up being immune.” Pepper’s voice is soft as she says this. Peter nods, and he looks like he would really rather be anywhere else at the moment. Not a good memory, then, Tony supposes.

The stairs creak under their weight, but manage to hold it. Tony frowns as they reach the top of the stairs, waiting for the other shoe to drop. They’ve been lucky thus far, and he’s preparing for it to suddenly run out.

Peter wanders off to one side to look at an intact glass case full of old letters. Tony walks over and jimmies it open so the teen can read them better. He gives Tony a small smile before opening it wider and pulling them all out to read one after the other. Tony can hear Pepper walking off in another direction, and he can’t help but look at the other things nearby.

Peter’s nearing the end of the pile when there’s suddenly a loud crashing noise, followed by the sound of clickers screeching through the air. Tony puts his hands on Peter’s shoulders and moves him closer. The letters in Peter’s hands drop to the floor and he pulls out his pocket knife.

“Pepper?” Tony shouts out, looking around for the redhead. “Peter, stay close to me.”

They move quickly and quietly through the floor of the museum. Tony’s calling out Pepper’s name more quietly now, as to not get the attention of the clickers. When the get to the hole in the floor, there’s a pack of clickers below them. They’re all hovering around something, and Tony has a sneaking suspicion that he knows what it is.

“We need to get out of here,” Tony tells Peter, moving him away from the opening.

“What about Pepper?” Peter asks, looking back. They both know Pepper likely fell through the floor, though Tony feels that Peter’s too naive at the moment to come to the same conclusion that he did.

“Peter, infected only hover like that when they find prey,” he hisses out. “And I have a feeling Pepper may not have survived that little fall.”

Peter’s eyes widen. “Tony, I’m so sor—”

“Save it. C’mon, we need to leave before they make us their next meal.” Tony’s gripping the teen’s arm a bit tighter than necessary, but Peter doesn’t voice his complaints.

They hustle up another flight of stairs and find a window leading out onto a fire escape. It makes a lot of noise as they climb out onto it, and Tony fears it’ll either break on them, or alert the clickers. Thankfully for both of them, it does neither. Tony leads them down and onto a nearby roof. He doesn’t check to make sure Peter’s following him as he hurries a far enough distance away from the old museum.

When Tony finally stops, he spins around quickly enough to see Peter jumping the last little bit of distance from the last roof to the current one. He’s panting, like he ran to keep up with Tony.

“This was all a mistake!” he starts, feeling incredibly angry. “All because you had to sneak out of the zone to go to a _ mall_. What were you doing there, anyway?”

“You know what? Fuck you. I didn’t ask to get bitten. And we snuck out because the military school is hell like the rest of this goddamn planet. Forgive us for trying to have fun for once,” Peter argues back.

“It’s your fault that Pepper’s dead,” Tony snaps, and Peter freezes. “Now, we are going straight to the capitol building. No detours, nothing. If I hear one word out of you, I’m leaving you where we stand. Are we clear?”

“Crystal,” Peter replies, completely shutting down after that.

Tony feels guilt settle in the pit of his stomach. Before he can act on it, he nods and turns back around and starts walking at a more leisurely pace. He can’t wait until this damn mess is over and done with.

Heading the rest of the way to the capitol building didn’t take too much longer. They didn’t run into anything else in the two hours it took to get there, thankfully. Pepper knew the area better than Tony did, so it took them longer than he would’ve liked. Still, though. They manage to get there and walk into the building.

Unfortunately for both of them, the Fireflies that were waiting there were all lying dead. Tony curses and runs a hand through his already messy hair. Peter’s still quiet as he goes through one of the Firefly’s jacket. He doesn’t seem to find much, but eventually recovers a piece of paper with instructions on it regarding Peter. Since it’s no help now, Peter balls it up and throws it at a nearby wall.

“What do we do now?” Peter asks, speaking for the first time since the outburst hours earlier. “I’m pretty sure we can’t get me back into the zone.”

“No, we can’t,” Tony says, sighing. “Fuck. I knew this was a suicide mission.”

He looks over at Peter, who can’t meet his eyes. He takes a closer look and realises how upset the teen really looks. Swallowing thickly, Tony turns away from him to stare out a nearby window.

“I’m willing to bet the military killed them. Bodies are still fairly warm, so they’re probably not too far away. We’ll need to be careful about leaving,” he says, turning away.

Peter looks up at that, clearly surprised. “What’s your plan, then?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Tony admits. He can imagine Pepper’s disappointed face if anything happens to Peter under his care. It’s a face he’s received too many times. “C’mon.”

Trailing behind him, Peter still keeps quiet as Tony leads them out a different way. There’s an abandoned subway station just ahead of them, and Tony gestures for Peter to follow him down. They’re quickly met with spores, so Tony hurriedly puts his mask on before they go any further. It isn’t until they’re halfway through walking across the platform when he turns around to see if Peter has a mask.

Peter simply raises an eyebrow questioningly when Tony suddenly stops to look at him. He’s not wearing a mask, and is currently breathing in the thick cloud of spores just fine.

“How the hell are you breathing this stuff in?” he asks.

“I told you, I’m immune,” Peter insists. “This stuff doesn’t bother me.”

Something in Tony shifts, and he lets out a huff of laughter. “Well I’ll be damned,” is all he says.

On the other side, Tony peels off his mask and shoves it back into his backpack. Peter’s wiping the dust out of his hair, but looking a bit better than when they went in. Tony wonders if it was because the kid knows that Tony finally believes him.

“If we’re doing this, I’m making one thing clear,” he says firmly. “You tell no one of your condition. The minute you do, we could be killed.”

“Yeah, of course,” Peter replies quickly.

“Also, I don’t want to hear _ anything _ about Pepper. Alright?”

Peter opens his mouth to respond, but quickly shuts it and nods in understanding. “So… what now?”

Sighing, Tony sits down on a nearby rock. “I have an old friend who used to be in the Fireflies. He might know where we’ll find them.”

“So you’re still bringing me to them?” Peter asks.

“What else are we going to do, kid? I can’t bring you back to Natasha.”

There’s a small smile on Peter’s lips as he nods. “Right. Where is your friend?”

“Across the country. We’ll need a car.” Tony runs a hand over his face. “I know where we can get one. There’s a guy in the next town over that owes me a couple favors.”

“Can I drive? I’ve always wanted to learn!” Peter bounces lightly on his feet.

Tony snorts as he stands up. “Hell no.”


	3. summer, part two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i apologize in advance if bruce's characterization is a bit wonky. i always have a bit of difficulty writing him, so i hope he isn't too bad, lmao
> 
> bill's town is one of my favorite parts in the game, so this chapter was fun to write, hehe

The trees surrounding them are stirring with the gentle wind that’s blowing around them. Peter’s curls are rustling as well, and it’s a reminder that he likely needed to cut it soon. He tucks a loose piece of hair behind one ear and follows being Tony as the older male leads him to a nearby town.

Tony doesn’t speak to him too much. Not since Pepper died. Granted, Tony didn’t seem very willing to talk to him before, but it seems more prominent now. Peter can’t help but wonder what’s going through Tony’s mind. He’s, sadly, already aware on what Tony thinks about the whole situation in the museum. While Peter wasn’t a direct cause for Pepper falling through the floor, he’s the reason they were in there in the first place.

Running his hand along the guardrail, Peter follows absentmindedly behind Tony. Around them, the woods grow thicker the farther they move from Boston. Peter will be the first to admit he’s not the best at guessing the passage of time based on the sun’s movements, but a few hours have definitely passed. Unlike walking through Boston, they didn’t have to climb over and through things to get to where they needed to be, ultimately slowing them down. Instead, it’s a straight shot along the abandoned highway.

Every time they pass a road sign, Peter reads it, and tries to imagine the cities they mention. Since he’s never left Boston, it’s a bit hard to guess what they look like. Based on what he’s been told growing up, only major cities got quarantine zones.

“There,” Tony says suddenly, startling Peter a bit. He points to a town not too far away. “That’s where he lives.”

Peter follows as Tony jumps over the guardrail. It’s a steep incline down into the waiting woods, but they manage not to slip. Once they’re fully emerged in the trees, Peter can’t help but grin. “I’ve never been in this.”

Tony stops, turning around to look at Peter weirdly. “What? The woods?”

“Yeah.” He stops himself and looks around. “It’s so… beautiful. I’ve seen nature, obviously. Even the military can’t stop it from growing in the zone. Hard as they try…”

Peter walks over to where a small cluster of purple flowers are growing. He gently runs his fingers over the soft petals, smiling as he does.

“I love reading up on books about everything in nature. My friend used to tease me all the time about it, but would always end up helping me find more books.” He looks up at Tony with a grin. “I know what berries are safe to eat and what aren’t.”

“All the berries?” There’s a teasing smile playing on Tony’s lips, and Peter can’t help how his grin spreads wider. “Seems a little far fetched, if you ask me.”

Peter stands up straight and snorts. “Yeah, yeah. Well, I know quite a few. I know how to recognize them, at the very least.”

“They taught you all the basics in school, right?” Tony jokes, earning an eye roll from Peter.

“Yes, they did. I know what bunnies are, and deer. And… all the other forest animals.” They continue walking for a minute, Peter still taking everything in. “I’ve always wanted to explore what’s outside the wall. I hate how strict the military is about entering and leaving. It’s so boring.”

Tony chuckles softly. “Yeah, I guess it is. Though, when you’ve been outside the zone as often as I have, the awe of it all isn’t really there anymore.”

“Was nature this abundant before the infection?” Peter asks. He can see them approaching the outside of the town now. He smiles as a bunny hops quickly across their path.

“Yes and no,” Tony says, and he leaves it at that.

When they enter the town, Peter’s taken aback by the aspect of it all. There’s buildings sitting in various states of disrepair and crumbling on either side of the street. On each end of the road in the small strip are large boarded up walls topped with barbed wire.

“Is your friend paranoid by any chance?” Peter asks, earning a sigh from Tony. “Because, I don’t know about you, but the walls seem a bit excessive.”

“It keeps people out,” Tony replies.

“I have a hunch that may be a sign that we shouldn’t even be here,” Peter says, laughing humorlessly. “I mean, all of these buildings are boarded up, Tony. Or they look like they’ll fall down at the slightest breeze. I highly doubt he’s anywhere here.”

Tony rolls his eyes. “This is only part of the town. He lives further in.”

“Oh,” Peter replies. He looks around with a sigh. “I wonder what this place was like before everything.” He spots a music shop and grins, hurrying over towards it. “No way.”

“Peter, wait.”

“I’m fine, Tony. Relax,” Peter says, huffing softly. He can’t stop smiling, however, as he lets his eyes scan over all the old records sitting in the shop. “Holy shit. It’s a shame it’s all just sitting here. If I had a way, I’d play all of this all of the time.”

“It would be a bit noisy playing it all at once, don’t you think?” Tony’s smirking when Peter shoots him a look.

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” He’s still smiling despite it all.

Tony shuffles off elsewhere in the building as Peter stays by the music and flips through most of them, wiping off dust and dirt from them to read the titles. He knows they don’t have the time for him to sit there and flip through all of them, but he appreciates that Tony isn’t rushing him through.

“Do you play any instruments?” he asks, looking up to see Tony going through the drawers behind the counter. “Tony?”

“Hmm?” Tony asks, looking up at his name being called.

“Do you play any instruments?” Peter repeats.

“I used to play the piano, when I was younger. It was something my dad insisted on. Of course, it’s been years since I’ve tickled the ivory keys, so I’ve forgotten most of it.” Tony shuts the drawer he was looking in. “Why do you ask?”

Peter shrugs, suddenly a bit shy. “I’ve always wanted to learn to play something.” He lightly taps on a symbol standing near the shelf he was by. “The school was more concerned with us learning everything we needed to survive. My, um. Before she died, my aunt actually taught me some things. Homeschooled me, basically, before… you know.”

“How do you know Natasha, then?”

“She was a friend of my aunt’s. I don’t really have too many memories of Nat before my aunt died, but she’s always been someone who’s been… constant.” Peter picked up a random cassette tape. There was a walkman still sitting at the bottom of his backpack. He hasn’t touched it since the day he got bit. Swallowing thickly, he sets it back down before wandering out of the store.

“Is there any other building you wanted to go through?” Tony asks, following Peter out. “You know… my buddy’s not expecting us. We can take our time through here, if you want.”

Peter blinks at the offer. Up until then, Tony has been wanting to get to places quickly. Though, he supposes, now that nobody is expecting them at the other side, they have more time on their hands. It’s a bit weird, if he’s being honest. Something he doesn’t expect.

Letting his eyes scan over the buildings, Peter’s suddenly filled with a sense of longing. Once upon a time, this tiny space used to be filled with people going in and out of the businesses. Now, though, they’re left abandoned to waste away. For a moment, Peter wishes he was born earlier, at least to catch a glimpse of the way life used to be like before the infection hit.

“No, thank you,” he tells Tony, and the answer surprises him a bit. There’s a burning curiosity filling every nook and cranny in his being. He _ wants _ to go through every single building. Wants to look through every last inch to see if he could piece together history.

Tony looks at him for a moment, and Peter feels a bit bare under the intensity. He isn’t sure what the older male is looking for, but Tony seems to find something in there that he expects. “How about this? I want to look through the buildings, though. Maybe we can find something of use in one of them.”

Once again, Peter’s taken aback by the words that come out of Tony’s mouth. For a brief moment, he thinks Tony may be some sort of mindreader. But by the way there’s already a dull throb settling in his head, Peter almost wishes Tony could see inside his brain. Maybe then whatever’s going on up there could be taken out. It’s already been a few weeks, and he’s already tired of dealing with being immune.

They, surprisingly, take their time going through the buildings. Some of them they can’t get into no matter how hard they pry at the boards. There’s an old restaurant sitting on the corner that Peter swears might have food they can eat. The nails holding the wooden boards over the doors and windows are rusted, and will only be able to be pried open with a hammer or crowbar. Neither of them feel like risking an injury from broken glass, either. They do manage to find a few salvageable things, though, so Peter considers it a bit of a win.

A loud explosion goes off close by. Both Tony and Peter are wide eyed as they stare in the direction from where it came from. Upon closer inspection, there’s a dead clicker laying at the end of an alleyway, the marks of some sort of bomb still on the wall.

“What the hell kind of stuff does your friend have?” Peter asks, eyeing the way the clicker is torn up. There are nails everywhere. The two of them have to step gently through it.

“Bombs, obviously,” Tony drawls. He sighs when Peter glares at him. “Just be careful. Look closely for any kind of trip wire.” They walk for a bit before Tony stops again and looks at Peter. “By the way, let me do all the talking. My friend… has a bit of a temper. He doesn’t really do well with strangers, so just.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“Peter, I’m serious.”

“Fine, okay. I’ll keep my mouth shut.” Peter’s rolling his eyes as he pushes past Tony. He hears a huff coming from him, and he ignores it as he keeps going.

After some time, Peter grows tired of the silence and attempts to whistle. He remembers _ her _ being able to. She promised to teach him at some point, but that opportunity was now long gone.

“What the hell are you doing?” Tony asks, raising an eyebrow. “Because whatever it is sounds pathetic.”

Peter glares at him. “I’m trying to whistle. I’ve never learned how.”

“And you decided now was a good time to try?”

Grinning, Peter nods happily. “No time like the present!” Mostly, he just likes to annoy Tony, and based on the way his face screwed up whenever Peter’s notes turned sharp or flat, it was more than worth it.

There’s a plume of smoke not far away that Tony suddenly points at. “There. That’s probably where Bruce’s at.”

“Wait, you don’t know?” Peter scoffs. “All this time, you’ve been going based off a guess?”

“Look, it was an educated guess, alright? I know he lives… somewhere around here.”

Peter stops and gives Tony a flat look. “If we get killed just because you think your paranoid friend lives here, I’m blaming you.”

Tony has the gall to look offended. “We won’t be killed here. Besides, Bruce lives alone in this town. And I know he lives in this area, so he’ll be the only person we run into.”

Peter rolls his eyes. “You know—”

He’s suddenly cut off when there’s screams piercing the air. Peter looks at Tony frightened before trying to place where the sound’s coming from. The screams don’t sound human, though, which only means one thing.

“Infected. Sounds like a lot of them,” Tony says, confirming Peter’s thoughts. He then ushers the teen into a nearby building. “Go. We’ll hide in here for the time being.”

Peter’s breath feels like it’s caught in his throat as he’s shoved into the building. With the windows boarded, it’s dark in there, with only bits of light shining through the cracks. Tony blocks the door with what Peter assumes to be a large shelf, if the scraping sound that was made along the floor was any hint.

The inhuman screams grow louder the longer they’re in there, and Peter feels his fear spike. It sounds like a lot, and he isn’t sure how the two of them will be able to get through them without being killed.

Unconsciously, he grabs tightly onto Tony’s arm when the adult goes next to him. It isn’t helping his fear much with it being dark in there and slowly being surrounded by infected. He’s well aware that while he has decent aim, trying to kill infected while being around so many wasn’t likely to end well for him. His hand clings onto Tony’s arm just a little bit tighter.

“The bomb must’ve alerted them,” Tony whispers to Peter. His voice is barely audible over the sound of Peter’s heartbeat thudding loudly in his ears.

“There’s so many out there,” Peter whispers back, burying his face into Tony’s back when another explosion goes off nearby. “We’re surrounded. I don’t think we’ll ever get out.”

Tony shushes him then. Peter feels a hand on his arm, and he nearly jumps out of his skin before he realises it’s just Tony trying to comfort him. Swallowing thickly again, Peter brings his face out of hiding to peek over Tony’s shoulder to see if there were any infected trying to break through the boards.

Peter can’t help the yelp he lets out when there’s suddenly a banging at the blocked door. The infected must smell them inside and are trying to get in. There’s arms trying to shove their way through the cracks, causing Peter’s heart to race wildly in fear.

There’s a sound of another explosion, but this time it sounds different. Outside, he can see fire suddenly popping up, causing the infected to scream out as they get caught in the flames. Unfortunately for the two men in the building, the flames don’t stop at the infected.

“Holy shit, we’re going to die,” Peter says, watching as the building slowly catches on fire around them. Tony quickly pulls away from him then, heading to the bookcase and trying to shove it away. Once Peter gets his feet moving again, he hurries over and starts helping.

There’s banging on the door again, but this time there’s a man’s voice on the other side. “Is anyone in there?”

“Bruce, buddy, you set the building we were hiding in on fire,” Tony shouts.

“Shit. I didn’t mean to, Tony.”

The two of them get the shelf moved out of the way and slip through the door before the fire can catch up to them. Around them, Peter sees a bunch of charred infected lying around them, dead. When he looks up, he meets Bruce’s steady gaze. “Hi, I’m Peter,” he says lamely.

“I’m Bruce.” He turns to Tony. “When did you and Pepper have a kid?”

“He’s not mine,” Tony says quickly. “Look, can we head somewhere else to talk? I think the kid’s still shaken up. I don’t want him to keep looking at this.”

Bruce is quick to nod. “Yeah, yeah. We can head to my bunker.” He gives one last quick glance to Peter before leading the duo away.

Peter takes another look over his shoulder at the still burning building before hurrying to catch up with the two adults.

Bruce leads them to the other side of town. Peter notices the man has a habit of murmuring to himself, but Tony didn’t seem bothered by it in the least. He must do it often, then. The rest of the town still holds a lot of interest to the fifteen-year-old. Old businesses keep sprouting up along with houses that they have to cut through. Bruce seems able to navigate everything blindly, and Peter almost has to run to keep up at times.

“There’s so much stuff people left behind,” Peter says, walking into an empty child’s room. Bruce let them stop for a minor breather in one of the houses. Peter thinks his pouting about not being able to look at everything was louder than he thought. Either way. “Some people left their whole lives behind. It’s so sad.”

“This town got a head’s up, believe it or not,” Tony says from behind him. “About the infection, that is. There are so many places where people had to just up and leave with no preparation.”

“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” Peter jokes. When Tony doesn’t reply, Peter looks back up at him to see a far off look on his face. He swallows back another wave of guilt. “Look, I, um. I’m sorry. About all the trouble I’ve caused on this whole thing so far. Especially about Pepper.”

Tony sighs softly. “It’s alright, kid.” He gently squeezes Peter’s shoulder, something unspoken in the gesture. Peter finds himself subconsciously leaning into it.

He walks off after that, and Peter’s left standing in the middle of the child’s bedroom still. There are posters falling apart where they’re still somehow sticking to the wall. A couple of them have fallen to a pile on the floor. The desk that’s shoved in the corner still has drawers open from where people have gone through them, throwing stuff aside without a care.

A photo on the desk catches Peter’s eye and he walks over to it. Gently picking it up, he wipes the dirt off the glass to see what was behind it. A small family is revealed, making Peter’s gut clench a little. A mom and a dad, along with a toddler daughter and a young son. The room he’s standing in likely once belonged to the young boy.

He quickly sets it back down. They looked so happy before everything happened. Peter’s gut clenches at the thought. Afterwards, he heads back downstairs where the two men are waiting for him.

It isn’t much longer until they reach where they need to go. After a short trip through an infected filled cemetery, they reach a set of cellar doors. Bruce leads the way down and starts talking about a bomb he’s made. He’s set them out throughout the town, and it’s what they kept hearing go off on their trek to find him.

“Woah, a chess board?” Peter asks with a grin, walking over to it. “I’ve always wanted to learn how to play.”

Just as he’s reaching out to touch the pieces, there’s a hand quickly slapping it away. He glares up at the owner of said hand. “Don’t touch it,” Bruce tells him. “I’m playing it with someone. He’ll be back any day now.”

“Who else is in this town that you would play with?” Peter asks with a raised eyebrow. “Did you befriend an infected? I know being lonely makes you lose your mind, but geez.”

“Peter,” Tony says, warning in his tone.

Peter rolls his eyes at the two men before walking away. “I won’t touch your shit, I got it.”

Instead of commenting on Peter’s attitude, Tony turns to Bruce. “I need a car, Bruce,” he says. “I need to get to Rhodey.”

“Firefly Rhodey?” Bruce asks with a laugh. “He’s still willing to talk to you after everything?”

“Bruce, buddy. Please,” Tony pleads.

“You owe him some favors, don’t you?” Peter asks, arms crossed over his chest. “At least, that’s what Tony told me.”

“I don’t have a running car, Tony,” Bruce tells Tony sadly. “I just have a bunch of parts.” He chews on his bottom lip a moment. “There is a military vehicle, though. It ran into the side of the school a while back. They abandoned it there. It has a battery. You can use that.”

As they discuss the specifics, Peter turns his attention to the multiple large piles Bruce has laying around the bunker. Smirking to himself and making sure Bruce and Tony aren’t watching, he helps himself to peeking through the stuff. With Bruce’s back to him, he slips a couple things into his backpack before making sure the piles looked like they did when they got there.

“Hey, I have an organization going on over there. Please don’t mess it up!” Bruce calls over to him.

“Trust me, I don’t want my hand slapped again. I’m not touching your shit,” Peter drawls, earning a huff of laughter from Bruce.

“I was a scientist before all this,” he mutters to himself.

That gets Peter’s attention. “A scientist?” he asks excitedly, walking quickly over to him. “What did you research?”

“Oh, um. Behavioral patterns in humans. I’ve had, uh. A bit of a temper problem my whole life. I was trying to figure out ways to calm it when the infection hit,” Bruce explains. He looks at Tony for a moment before looking back at the excitable teen. “Why do you ask?”

Peter blushes a little bit. “If I had the opportunity, I’ve always wanted to be someone to discover and explore things. Like medicine, or anything. Natasha used to take me along whenever a doctor came to visit the Fireflies in the zone. I used to ask her, like, a million questions. Pretty sure I annoyed her after a while, but she still answered everything.”

“You’ve always been curious, haven’t you?” Tony asks.

“Well, yeah. I like knowing things about the world around me. And if one day, I can use my brain to help others, I’m more than willing to do it.” Peter falters a little at his wording, but stands up straighter, more determined. “I will use my brain, at all costs.”

He meets Tony’s eyes, and they have a staring contest before the older looks away. “Alright, kid. I’ve got the message. C’mon, Bruce. Lead us to the vehicle.”

When the school first comes into view, Peter isn’t sure what to think of it. There are buses parked haphazardly across the parking lot in front, the school’s name in a fading black print along the sides. There were multiple infected roaming around the outside of the school, blocking the otherwise straightforward path.

“What do we do?” Peter whispers, looking at Tony for guidance.

“We’ll have to go through,” Bruce answers. “There’s no other way directly to the truck. I don’t know how many are inside.”

“How do you know there’s more inside?”

“Usually, if there’s some hanging around the outside, there’ll be a few on the inside. Especially at a place like the school where a lot of people used for shelter before the town got abandoned,” Tony says. He peeks over the car they’re hiding behind. “We’ll have to be quiet about this if we want to make it in. There’s a lot, and we don’t want to get ambushed again.”

“How are you so comfortable living in a town crawling with infected?” Peter asks Bruce. “Are you out of your mind?”

“Nobody comes in my town once they see all of them,” Bruce explains. He’s holding his gun a bit tightly, and it makes Peter eye him warily. “If we stick close to the outer wall, it should be the easiest way across. Keep cover behind buses and stay quiet. If we’re quick enough, we shouldn’t alert them.”

“Stay right by me, Peter,” Tony tells him firmly. Peter nods quickly in reply.

Bruce takes out the first runner they come across. With a quick stab to the throat, they go down quickly. Tony takes out the next one with a bow they came across on their way through town. He only has a few arrows, so he’s careful about his aim, pulling it out of the body once the runner’s down. They’re nearly at the building when one of the runners spots them.

They scramble up the fence and run towards an open window once they’re on the other side. With Tony’s help, Peter and him manage to shove one of the shelves in there in front of the locked door. It’s only a chain lock, and there are runners and clickers alike trying to shove themselves through the gap.

“Bruce!” Tony shouts, trying his best to keep the doors shut with the shelving. Peter’s doing his best not to panic.

“It’s empty,” Bruce says, sounding angry as he looks under the hood of the military truck. “Somebody stole my battery.”

“What the hell do we do now?” Peter yells, looking between Bruce and Tony.

“We gotta get out of here,” Bruce says. He runs a hand over his face before heading towards the other set of double doors leading further into the school. “This way.”

Peter and Tony release their hold on the shelving and they book it out of the room. The large doors they just went through are quickly shut, Bruce shoving the handle of a broom through the handles to keep it shut. There are infected banging at the door, but they’re unable to get the doors open.

“How much time do we have before they get through?” Peter asks, eyes wide. The screams from the infected still shake him, no matter how many times he hears it.

“We should be fine,” Bruce replies. “We shouldn’t test it, though.”

Peter nods, eyeing the door a moment longer before trailing behind Tony. Bruce doesn’t seem to know where they should go, so Peter takes the time to look around the school. The empty halls are dark, and it makes the whole thing more eerie. He walks over to one of the lockers and runs his fingers over the cool metal. Opening it, he sees a backpack still hanging on one hook, papers and books spilling out of it from where it’s open. On the other is a jacket, the material pink, white, and brown stripes. Smiling a little, he pulls it out, shaking the cobwebs off as best he can.

“What are you doing?”

Peter turns to see both Bruce and Tony watching him. Peter holds up the jacket. “Well, it’ll get cold soon-ish, right? I don’t know how long getting to where Tony and I need to be, so.” He shrugs. “It doesn’t hurt to be prepared, right?”

“Uh, yeah. You have the room to carry it, right?” Tony asks, walking over. “I, uh. I might have space if you need it.”

“Yeah, I don’t really carry much anyway.” Peter slips off his backpack and is about to slip it in when Tony stops him.

“Here, try it on first. Don’t want to go all that way and not have it fit, right?” Tony chuckles softly. He grabs the jacket from Peter and dusts it off himself before holding it out for Peter to slip on.

Smiling, Peter slips his arms through the sleeves and zips it up. It fits him fairly well, and it’s warm. He grins up at Tony. “It fits.”

Tony smiles back. “Yeah, that’s great, kiddo. It’s actually not a bad idea to think ahead. That kind of stuff saves you, you know?”

“It’s only a jacket, Tony.” Peter huffs out a soft laugh as he folds the jacket and slips it into his backpack.

“No, I mean.” He pauses talking long enough that it makes Peter look up. He’s shuffling where he’s standing. Bruce isn’t in the hallway anymore, likely somewhere else to give them privacy. Zipping his backpack back up, he stands and slips it back over his shoulders, still looking at Tony. “This is for anything, Peter. If we’re up against an enemy, the best thing to do before you make an attack is to think of the possibilities of what may happen. Now, you may have to do these kinds of things quickly. But as long as you stay calm and don’t panic, you’ll be fine.”

Peter smiles a bit. “Are you giving me advice, Tony?” he teases. “Some might say you’re going soft. And we’ve only known each other for a couple days. What will the neighbors think?”

Tony huffs out a laugh. “Okay, brat. Keep that up, and I’ll quit giving you useful advice.”

“No, no. I’m sorry.” Peter’s still smiling at Tony, and Tony just shakes his head. Peter can see the hint of a smile on his face. “Thank you, Tony.”

Tony ruffles his hair, a small smile on his face. “Don’t mention it, kiddo.”

They meet back up with Bruce after that. He’s standing in a nearby classroom, flipping through one of the textbooks. Peter sees a plastic skeleton in the back corner and snickers. “That looks so fake.”

“Because it is,” Bruce says without looking up. “This is a science classroom. Teachers have them up for students to study.”

Peter perks up at the word ‘science’ and looks over Bruce’s shoulder. “Damn. If only these weren’t so heavy.”

“Guys, we should probably get going. It’ll be dark soon,” Tony speaks up.

“Right, sorry,” Bruce apologizes, closing the book quickly. “I think I know a back way out, but we’ll have to cut through the gym.”

“We’re following you.”

Bruce leads them through the halls to the doors of the gym. They have to move something heavy that’s blocking the door, but all three of them manage to squeeze their way through. They’re halfway through the court when there’s suddenly a loud banging that stops them in their tracks.

“What the hell was that?” Peter asks, looking around.

“That can’t be good,” Bruce says, pulling his gun out. Peter follows his lead and grips it tightly with two hands.

There’s no quick way out, so Peter hopes with all of his might that whatever made the noise won’t be too much of a battle. The doors on the far side of the gym suddenly burst open and out walks the most hideous thing Peter’s ever seen. It’s enormous, and making loud groans as it slowly stalks forward.

“What the fuck?” Peter shouts, shooting at it. “Is that the bloater you were telling me about?”

“Unfortunately.” Tony shoots at it a minute before he suddenly stops and takes his backpack off.

Peter has to jump to avoid a loud cloud of spores the thing _ threw _ at them. Though it doesn’t bother Peter any, losing his sight in the cloud won’t do him any good. He only hopes Tony dodged it in time. He keeps shooting at the massive thing when suddenly it’s doused in flames. When he looks over, he sees Tony still holding a lighter.

“What the hell?” he asks out loud, confused.

After the bloater caught on fire, it didn’t take too much longer for it to go down. The flames seemed to weaken the armor enough for a bullet to get through a make a kill shot. Peter was still shaken as he turned the safety back on his gun and tucked it away.

“Hurry, let’s get out of here before anymore infected decide to show up. We’ve been lucky so far, but with all that noise, we won’t be for much longer.” Tony hurries over to where the bleachers sit just a bit jutted out yet. He gives both Bruce and Peter a boost up before Bruce pulls him up.

Just as they get to the window out, the gym doors burst open and infected start pouring in.

A house sits on the other side of a large fence not far away from the school. While the scent of rotting corpses has become a scent Peter grew numb to over the years, it seems to be more pungent in the house they’ve found themselves in. Peter looks around for the cause of the smell, and finds both Tony and Bruce staring at a hanging man in the middle of the living room.

“You know who it is?” Tony asks when Bruce keeps staring at the dead man.

“He… he, uh. Was my partner, Thor,” Bruce replies, voice soft. “I thought… I thought he was doing a supply run.”

Peter keeps his distance, not wanting to intrude. He doesn’t know Bruce as well as Tony does. He watches as Bruce cuts the corpse down and just stares at it. Even from where he’s standing, Peter can see the bite marks along one of his arms.

“I guess he didn’t want to turn,” Bruce says. He doesn’t speak up too loudly, like his voice may crack if he speaks any louder. He then clears his throat. “Go ahead and load up on whatever you find here. He may have stashed his bullets somewhere.”

Tony nods, giving Bruce’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Bruce, I…” he starts, unable to find the words. Bruce seems to get the message anyway, and shoots him a small smile.

Unable to watch any longer, Peter turns away and heads into the next room. He gives Tony most of the bullets he finds, but Tony gives him some more to fill his own gun. They store whatever else they find into Tony’s backpack.

Tony heads upstairs to look around while Peter heads into the garage. In there sits an old truck that’s in decent condition. There’s keys in the ignition, so Peter opens the door and hops inside. He tries turning it over, listening to the engine sputtering but not catching. Bruce and Tony rush in, seeing Peter sitting in the driver’s seat of the truck.

“Sounds like this truck might be able to run,” Peter says helpfully. “I can’t get it to start, though.”

Bruce opens the hood and lets out a laugh. “He brought the battery here. Son of a bitch…”

“Can we get it to run?” Peter asks, watching Bruce through the windshield of the car.

“Yeah, yeah. Um.” Bruce ran a hand through his hair. “Peter, do you know how to pop a clutch?”

“Vaguely,” he answers.

Bruce walks over to the window of the truck to see what Peter’s done so far. “Okay, so. Put it in first, there you go. Now do this…”

By the time the two adults are ready to push the truck, Peter feels slightly more prepared. Bruce suggests they push the truck towards the hill for the best chance to get it to start. Peter keeps a tight grip on the steering wheel as they push the truck, doing everything Bruce had instructed to him thus far. The minute the truck starts rolling down the large hill, he successfully pops the clutch and the truck roars to life.

Peter drives them a safe enough distance away from the school before pulling to a stop and letting it run. As he climbs into the backseat, Tony and Bruce both get out. He can’t make out what they’re talking about, but Bruce gives Tony a syphon hose before walking back towards the town.

“Will he be okay?” Peter asks when Tony’s behind the wheel.

“I don’t know,” Tony replies, sighing softly. “It’s late, why don’t you get some sleep.”

Peter glances out the back window. He can’t see Bruce at all as he watches as the town gets smaller and smaller. A large part of Peter feels upset on Bruce’s behalf. He may not have known the man for very long, but loss always seems to affect everyone differently. He only hopes Bruce will be alright.

With a soft sigh, Peter lays down across the backseat and closes his eyes. Even if he doesn’t feel very tired, getting to lay down for a bit and rest still feels nice.

When he wakes up a little bit later, there’s a _ pitter patter _ against the roof of the truck and on the windows. He groggily opens his eyes and looks towards the nearest window to see the rain coming down. As he lays there, he’s glad he doesn’t have to be out in it this time around. It also makes him think of Pepper, and his gut clenches in guilt.

Tony’s distracted up front, navigating the broken road they’re driving on with ease. Peter can’t fall back asleep now that he’s slept for he doesn’t know how long. Smiling to himself, he rummages through his backpack and pulls out a comic he swiped from Bruce’s bunker. The early morning light streams through the windows, providing him with enough light to be able to read. _ She’s _ talked about comics before, only filling Peter with a burning curiosity. Her younger brother had them, so of course she read them too. Now, as he’s flipping through the pages of the cheesy superhero comic, all he can think about is wishing he lived in a world where heroes saved the day.

“Shouldn’t you be asleep?”

Peter looks up sheepishly at where Tony is eyeing him through the rearview mirror. He sits up, not bothering to hide the comic. “I was, I swear. The rain woke me, and I decided to read to pass the time.”

“Where’d you even get that?” Tony asks with a laugh.

“I’ve had it the entire time, what are you talking about?” Peter puts his feet up on the center console, continuing to read through it.

“Uh-huh,” Tony says skeptically. Even though he’s keeping his eyes on the colorful pictures in front of him, Peter knows Tony is giving him a look.

“Alright, fine. I swiped a few from Bruce’s. He has so much shit laying around that I highly doubt he’ll even notice they’re gone.” He gets to the end of the current issue and makes a face. “God, I hate cliffhangers. I really hope I didn’t just swipe some only to be left off in disappointment.”

Peter grabs his backpack and hops up into the passenger seat. He slips the first comic back into his backpack before pulling out the second. When he looks up, he sees cars lining the streets, and how Tony has to avoid a lot of them.

“How the hell are you even managing to get through all this?” Peter asks, raising an eyebrow. “Aren’t the roads blocked?”

“Most of them aren’t, no,” Tony answers, smiling a little. “And most of our traveling hasn’t been this bad.” He then does a double take at the new comic. “How many of those did you take exactly?”

“Like five, I think. I took them when Bruce was telling you about the nail bombs he made.” Peter props his feet up on the dash and starts flipping through the new one. Next to him, Tony just chuckles.

Peter ends up getting more into the comics than he originally thought he would. He talks excitedly about them every so often, and if it wasn’t for Tony’s questions, Peter would’ve easily thought he was being tuned out. It’s fun, Peter can’t help but think. If traveling all the way across country continues like this, he may enjoy the trip a lot more.

They’ve been traveling for a few hours when Tony slows down the truck. Peter looks away from where he’s been looking out the window to stare at Tony confused. “What’s the matter?”

The road in front of them is covered in cars, making it impossible to pass through. There’s an off ramp nearby that’s open, but Tony’s hesitating. He sighs and taps fingers on the wheel before sighing and making the turn. Not knowing what the deal was, Peter just shrugs it off and goes back to watching the passing scenery.

It’s peaceful still up until Tony suddenly slams on the breaks.

“Ow, what the hell?” Peter complains, sitting up straight in the seat. “A little warning would’ve been nice.”

Tony’s looking straight ahead, so Peter looks and sees a man clutching his side and limping in their direction. “Peter, put your seatbelt on.”

Confused, but still doing what he’s told because the tone in Tony’s voice is eerily calm. “Aren’t we going to help him? He looks hurt.”

“He’s not.” Tony slams on the gas and the truck lurches forward, straight towards the man.

Said man suddenly stands up straight, pointing a gun straight at them. Peter’s eyes widen as more men come out of their hiding place. They end up hitting the man Peter thought was injured as Tony tries to navigate a way through the mess. Peter catches sight of a camper heading straight for them out of the corner of his eye, only managing a quick “watch out!” before it slams into the side of them.

Their truck goes off course and straight through the glass window of an old shop. Peter doesn’t have time to pick the glass out of his arms before his door is being opened. He shouts as he’s being pulled out by a strange man, fighting against him all the way. He wonders where Tony is until he catches sight of him fighting off another man.

“You piece of shit,” Peter growls, biting down hard on the arm wrapped around him. The man shouts in pain before backhanding Peter hard enough to send him to the floor.

The man is suddenly on top of him, moving his hands in a way Peter knows means to kill him by choking. Peter manages to get a leg between them and kicks the man square in the stomach. He wheezes, but doesn’t move off of Peter.

“Asshole,” Peter mutters, fighting off the hands so they don’t wrap around his throat. He grabs a brick from nearby and doesn’t hesitate to slam it into the side of the man’s face.

As soon as he’s off of him, Peter’s scrambling up and Tony comes barreling over to kill him. Peter feels like he can’t catch his breath, but he’s more thankful for Tony getting to him more than anything.

“Are you okay? Tony asks him, helping him pick some of the glass out. “We need to get out of here.”

Peter nods quickly, pushing past Tony to grab their things. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He spots more men running over from where they were and he drags Tony behind a nearby counter to hide. “What should we do?”

“How good is your aim?”

“It could be better,” Peter says with a humorless laugh. “Why?”

“Stay here, then,” Tony tells him before slipping around to hide behind a fallen shelf.

Peter glares a little at Tony’s back before staying put anyway. There are shots ringing out all around him, and he has to close his eyes a minute to catch his breath. When he opens them, Tony is kneeling in front of him, bleeding in the shoulder from a gunshot wound.

“Shit,” Peter breathes out, sliding off his backpack to grab the few medical supplies Natasha had him stash in it. “Here, move your shirt so I can patch you up.”

Tony puts his hands on Peter’s shoulders before he can do anything. “Breathe, kiddo, c’mon.”

Peter doesn’t realise his hands are shaking so bad until Tony stops his frantic movements. He takes a breath, albeit a shaky one, and finds it soothing. He does it a few more times before his hands are still enough to patch up the wound.

“We really need to get out of here,” Tony announces once Peter’s done.


	4. summer, part three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mind the tags for this one!!

Tony’s taking long enough strides that he can hear Peter struggling to keep up. He doesn’t pay it much mind, though, instead trying to figure out a way to get out of the town they’ve found themselves in.

“You’re not telling me something,” Peter accuses. “I’d like to know what it is.”

Letting out a defeated sigh, Tony pauses where he’s walking. They’ve ended up somewhere on a flooded road with a bridge some ways down; the water’s deeper under it due to the dip of the road going underneath it. 

“We’re not going to swim in that, are we?” Peter asks, his nose scrunching. “It looks gross.”

Tony lets out a huff of a laugh as he shakes his head. “No, we’re not. At least, we’ll try not to. How good of a swimmer are you?”

“I know how to, if that’s what you’re asking.” Peter raises an eyebrow, smirking a little. “Not very good at it, though. The military school didn’t bother with that. It was my aunt who taught me, and she died when I was younger, so…”

Tony nods. “Well, to answer your earlier question, yes, I’m not telling you something.”

“Well what is it?” Peter asks quickly. “Don’t keep me in suspense, dude.”

Tony shakes his head at the nickname. “I had a feeling it was going to be an ambush. We, uh. Had a similar set-up back in Boston. Block the road and force travelers to go through the road we were waiting on. Ambush them as soon as we could and take their stuff. Most times that meant killing them.” He sighs and looks around. “Although, with this city being abandoned, they have more room to work with. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re chasing us down to kill us.”

“But they won’t, right?” Peter asks, his voice soft. “Kill us, I mean.”

There’s something in Peter’s face that makes Tony pause a moment. He looks, well, like a kid. Scared about what’s laying ahead of him and looking to an adult, Tony, for guidance. The looks scares him more than he’d like it to. “We’ll do our best to make sure that doesn’t happen, okay, kid?”

“Okay.” Peter gives him a small smile, and Tony takes it as a win.

Suddenly, there’s shouting coming from down the street. Tony grabs Peter’s arm and drags him into a nearby building to avoid being seen. On the bridge, a few individuals are running for their lives down the road. Chasing them is a truck modified with a turret on top that’s shooting at them. They’re out of the line of sight, but Tony can feel Peter gripping his arm as they hold their breaths and wait for it to pass. There’s screaming that’s quickly silenced after a round of shots ring out. He can feel Peter’s hands shaking from where they’re holding onto him.

Tony waits until he’s certain they’re safe to let out a breath. “We’re fine for now,” he says. Peter seems to be reluctant to let go of him, but he shuffles back nonetheless.

It’s then that Tony takes notice of where they’re at. It’s a hotel— a lavish one at that. It’s in a state of disrepair with a small amount of flooding coming in from the street. It looks like a hotel Tony would’ve stayed at on business trips for his company.

“I bet this place was gorgeous back in its heyday,” Peter comments. “I would’ve wanted to stay here.”

“I probably have,” Tony admits with a laugh. “Well, not this exact one. If it was a chain, I’ve likely been to a city and stayed in it.”

“A chain in this instance is like… multiple of the same thing in many areas, right?” Peter asks, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Yeah,” Tony answers with a grin.

Peter beams. “How could you afford a place like this?” he asks, looking around. He doesn’t seem to care about his socks and shoes being submerged in the water. “It looks expensive.”

Tony doesn’t answer for a moment, so Peter turns to look at him. Tony clears his throat. “I, uh. Used to be the owner of a large tech company.”

“No way.” Peter’s grinning again. “So you’re, like, really smart?”

Tony can’t help but laugh. That wasn’t what he was expecting the kid to focus on. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Do you miss it?” Peter leans against the check-in counter and Tony briefly worries that it’ll crumble under the teen’s weight. It doesn’t.

“Sometimes, yeah. I miss coffee more, though.”

Peter laughs. “I’ve had it once. Didn’t care for it, though.” When Tony arches a brow, Peter playfully rolls his eyes. “I’ve worked in the kitchen at the school before. During one of my kitchen shifts, I snuck a taste of the coffee we made for soldiers. Tasted awful.”

“It’s an acquired taste.” Tony looks around and is hit with an intense feeling of nostalgia. It makes his chest tighten uncomfortably, and he tries to swallow around the lump in his throat. He has difficulty doing so, but somehow manages. When he clears his head, Peter’s watching him in concern. Tony gives him a tight smile. “We can cut through the hotel. Stay out of sight.”

He walks over to the half of the hotel that was under construction when the infection hit. There’s a large pile of hardened cement bags that sit unmoving in one corner, where the water’s murky enough that Tony can’t tell how far the dip in the floor is. The large chandelier that hung in the lobby had fallen at some point, collapsing the stairs and making it impassable.

“If I give you a boost up onto the ledge, do you think you can knock down the ladder?” Tony asks, pointing to a nearby ledge up to the next floor. There’s a ladder leaning against the far wall. It looks sturdy enough to hold Tony’s weight.

“Uh, sure,” Peter answers unsurely.

Tony cups his hands together and spreads his legs a bit to spread his weight more evenly. Peter puts one foot into Tony’s hands and once he’s up, he puts the other on Tony’s shoulder. Tony grunts a bit under the weight, but pushes Peter up higher to make it easier for him to crawl up.

Stepping back a little, Tony’s eyes quickly find Peter, who’s still in one piece. Peter grabs the ladder and moves it down to lean against the wall for Tony to climb up onto the floor.

“Thanks, kid,” Tony says once he’s up, gently squeezing Peter’s shoulder in gratitude.

“You know. I’ve done more in the past few days than I have in my entire life,” Peter admits, a bit sadly. “I mean, everything that’s happened, has sucked. But it’s been nice not being stuck within the walls still.”

“I hear you there,” Tony says with a chuckle. He sighs when he sees all the boarded up windows. “It’ll be tricky getting through this damn place.”

“We’re sightseeing,” Peter says, grinning widely. He notices an old luggage cart and walks over to it. He jokingly gasps when he sees an overturned suitcase on it. “Whoever works at this hotel should be fired immediately! All my clothes are on the floor! This is unacceptable. I demand one night of my stay free. I will not tolerate my undergarments being out for everybody to see.”

Tony laughs. “What are you doing?”

“Well I’ll never actually stay here. I’m having fun with it.” Peter’s smile is so wide that he looks more his age. Their cruel world has certainly aged him already. It’s nice to see him being so carefree. “Was this place nice when you stayed here?”

“Yeah,” Tony answers, smiling a bit himself as they walk up the stairs to the next floor. “The beds were super comfy. Ha-” He quickly quiets. “They had good breakfasts. I loved their waffles.”

Peter raises an eyebrow at the slip-up, but thankfully doesn’t comment on it. “When we’re said and done with this, I want to learn how to cook more,” he says. “I only know how to make whatever they fed us at the school, and they didn’t exactly have a very wide variety.”

“I can teach you,” Tony offers before he can stop himself. “Most stuff isn’t too hard once you know what you’re doing.”

Peter smiles. “Really?”

“Yeah, ‘course.”

They’re still walking along the hall when they hear voices coming from one of the rooms up ahead. They share a look before hurrying towards a room next to them and shutting the door. Tony shuts it as quietly as he can, but he’s still sure they heard the squeak of the hinges as the door moved.

“Get under the bed,” Tony hisses at Peter before hiding in the connecting bathroom. It’s right next to the door, so Peter should be fairly safe from where he’s hiding. Only if Tony can take them out before they have a chance of finding the teen.

“Which one is it?” a male voice asks from the hallway.

“The only one that’s shut, dumbass,” another replies, making Tony smirk to himself. “God, how stupid are you?”

There’s no response from the partner. Tony holds his breath as the door slowly opens. He’s hiding just so that he can see the tip of a gun entering first before the first man is cautiously walking in.

Aiming his gun, Tony waits until the man’s head enters before taking a shot. It hits where he wanted it to, the man collapsing to the floor, dead. There’s shouts coming from the other one, and Tony comes out swinging a broken board he found in the bathroom. The minute the other is dead, there’s suddenly more shouting coming from both ends of the hall.

“Shit,” Tony curses under his breath, running back into the room. He tries the window, and forces the vines that grew on it to break. Once he gets it open, he tells Peter to get up and out onto the fire escape on the outside of the window. It shakes under their weight, and Tony closes the window again, and they both hold their breath.

Peter’s taken out his own gun and is holding it only slightly improperly. Tony huffs for a minute before reaching over and adjusting Peter’s hold. Peter gives him a weak smile before freezing when there’s a voice on the other side of the window.

As soon as it sounds further away, Tony takes the stairs of the fire escape up, rushing up as they creak and groan. Peter’s right on his heels, and they slip back into the hotel when the men hunting them burst out onto the fire escape.

“Don’t slow down,” Tony instructs Peter, only glancing over his shoulder to make sure the younger was still there.

The sounds of thundering footsteps isn’t far behind them, and they only have enough time to duck into another room near the end of the hallway. Tony isn’t sure where their end goal is, only desperate in getting away from the hunters.

“What do we do?” Peter whispers to Tony as they hide away in the bathroom. So far, it sounds like the men haven’t checked their room yet. Neither of them even know how many are following them.

“I don’t know,” Tony admits. He puts a hand over Peter’s mouth when the teen goes to say something else, but a hunter enters the room the bathroom they’re in is connected to. “Stay here,” he mouths to Peter, releasing his hand.

Peter holds his gun tighter and nods in response.

After taking a moment to listen if there were any others nearby, Tony sneaks out of the bathroom and towards the man in their room. He’s checking under the bed and is none-the-wiser. Tony doesn’t hesitate to put a hand over his mouth and a gun to his head. The man freezes, and only minorly struggles when Tony moves him to the other side of the bed. Once he’s sure they’ll be okay, he moves his gun arm to quickly grab his knife and plunge it into the man’s neck, keeping his hand over his mouth as the man quickly bleeds out, going limp in his arms.

Once he’s sure it’s safe, he goes back to the bathroom where Peter’s still waiting. He gestures for him to follow him, and slowly leads the way out of the bathroom. The moment they can, they hurry towards the elevator, where there’s enough space between the doors to squeeze between.

“Hey!”

“Go!” Tony yells at Peter, who then promptly scrambles up the ladder that’s in the elevator. Tony has a sinking feeling they stumbled onto one of the bases as he closes the door that lead them onto the top of the elevator.

“Holy shit,” Peter breathes out, looking around wildly. “What now?”

“Uh, shit.” Tony spots a small space behind a large bar that they could fit through. On the other side is another elevator that sits a floor down, giving them the room to stand on. The elevator doors the floor above it are open, but no ladder for them to use. “There. I’ll boost you up there and you can find something for me to climb on.”

“Okay,” Peter says, and his voice sounds shaky. There’s suddenly a loud bang on the elevator door that makes him yelp, but it doesn’t move. Tony gives a silent thanks that the rusty lock held.

They squeeze through the tight fit, and Tony once more gives Peter a boost onto the higher floor. Their movement caused the elevator to shift under Tony’s feet. In a moment of panic, Tony lifts Peter up so quickly he’s almost thrown. He only hears the start of Peter groaning at the unexpected momentum before the elevator gives out from under him.

Thanking all his lucky stars, the basement is almost completely filled with water. His fall is cushioned by the water, and he goes under for a moment before quickly swimming up. He didn’t have time to get much air in his lungs before the dive in.

“Tony!” Peter’s frantic voice calls out. “Tony, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Tony calls back. “I landed in water.”

“Holy fuck.” Peter sounds like he’s trying to calm himself down from a panic attack. “That scared the shit out of me.”

“Scared _ you_?” Tony asks with a bit of a laugh. “You should be in my position.”

“I’ll find a way down.”

“No!” Tony’s quick to cut the teen off. “Stay up there, Peter. I’ll find a way up.”

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Peter calls out. “Or, well, anything else stupid.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, kid. You stay safe, too. Make sure the hunters don’t find you.” Tony’s already tired of swimming. He hopes he’s able to find a quick way out. “I’ll try to be quick.”

Swimming further in, he’s met with darkness. He turns on his flashlight and tensely swims through, looking for a way out of there. Not having Peter following him suddenly feels weird. Tony’s grown so used to hearing the younger’s chattering in his ear over their trip, that it feels weird when it’s silent. It makes him tense a bit further, and he just needs to get out of the basement.

The floor inclines and he’s thankful that he has a solid footing now as he navigates through the darkness. The bad part is that his flashlight attracts the attention of stalkers that lurk in the basement. Screeches pierce the air as Tony quickly flicks his flashlight off and pulls out his gun. He stays still for the time being, wondering if the infected will try charging him, or continue hiding and sneaking up on him.

His eyes adjust to the lack of light, and he can make out the sound of a stalker inching closer to him. Tony’s still standing in ankle deep water, the sound of it being disturbed loud in the air. Though they make a lot of noise at any stage of infected, stalkers tend to try the most at being sneaky. They still scream and make sounds of hungry desperation after their prey, however.

Tony inches forward slowly. His heart is thudding in his ears, and he wills it down as he continues pointing his gun in directions he hears them. Though he wishes he still had his flashlight on, he doesn’t want to alert them to his movements. The minute he’s fully out of the water, he realises he’s in an office type of room. The floor of it collapsed, creating a ramp down into the water of the basement. He swallows thickly and hopes his movements are more muted now.

A stalker suddenly roars out, sounding like it’s coming from right next to him. Instead of screaming out, however, he turns and shoots straight at it. It takes a couple shots, but it finally goes down. Swallowing thickly, he continues to look around through the darkness. Even though his eyes have adjusted completely now, there’s too many places for them to hide.

“God, I hate these things,” he mutters to himself. Unfortunately for him, the shooting alerted the other infected to where he was. He suddenly feels surrounded as they seemingly come out of nowhere and head straight for him. “Shit.”

Tony manages to kill a couple more with his gun before he’s too overrun with infected to handle on his own. He turns quickly on his heel and sprints down the hallway. He desperately hopes there’s a door at the end of the tunnel. Infected are screeching loudly as they follow behind him, nearly catching him when he spots a door.

Whether it leads him out or not, he opens it and shuts it before any infected can get through. There’s a chair sitting innocently nearby, so he grabs it and jams it under the handle of the door. In the distance, he can hear the roar of the bloater coming from the basement.

Heart still beating fast, Tony hurries up the stairs before the infected figure out how to get through. Pushing through the door on the other side, he grabs another chair from one of the offices on this floor and pushes it under the handle. It gives him time, if they do manage to get through.

Letting out a shaky breath, Tony lets himself calm down before moving on. No use being all panicked when he finds Peter. It will just freak the poor kid out more if Tony’s all in a tizzy when they meet back up again.

In an attempt to calm the shaking in his hands, Tony goes through the offices on the floor. There isn’t much, but he finds a random comic in the drawer of one. Based on the family picture sitting on the desk, Tony has to guess that the dad kept comics in his office for his son when he visited. Tony isn’t sure if Peter will even like it, but he slips it into his backpack anyway.

Tony soon finds himself in the hotel kitchen. He grabs the few food cans that are in there, and is about to head out when he hears voices coming from the seating area. He ducks behind a counter and pulls out his gun once more. He’s low on bullets, and he hopes he’s able to kill the men in the restaurant and swipe their ammo. Also knowing there’s hunters on this floor makes him worry about Peter. He can only hope the teen’s okay.

Tony peeks over the counter and takes count of how many men are there. Thankfully, there’s only three, and they haven’t caught any wind of him being in there at all. They’re lounging around, playing cards on a cleared out table and laughing while they drink beer. It makes him wonder if they haven’t caught wind about two intruders being in there yet, or they just don’t care.

Another man drops down from the exposed part of the ceiling. He kicks the ladder down afterwards, as if knowing Tony’s there and doesn’t want him having a quick way out.

“What are you bums doing?” he demands. “We’ve got two travelers in here, for fuck’s sake. Find them and kill them!”

The three playing cards quickly scramble up, guns quickly at the ready. The other one must be their leader, if Tony has to guess. Either that, or he’s just someone who was put in charge of getting the others going.

Tony keeps hidden behind the counter while the four men spread out and search the area they’re in. As soon as one’s close enough, Tony covers his mouth and chokes him out. He has to be quick about searching the body for ammo, but luckily the man kept a few extra bullets in an easily accessible front pocket. Tony also takes his gun and shoves it into his holster for the time being.

The other three aren’t as easy to take down. They find the body of their friend, and stick close together. Tony ends up having to take a nail bomb he made in Bruce’s town and throwing it at them. All but one are killed, but Tony easily shoots him down.

Once he’s certain that there aren’t anymore hunters in the room, he searches the other bodies for more ammo. He takes the ammo out of the guns they were all carrying, including the one from earlier and shoving them into a special pocket on the inside of his backpack. He even grabs some extra for Peter.

He puts the ladder back up where it was and starts climbing to the floor above. He’s suddenly kicked back down when a man comes out of nowhere. Likely hiding in wait for him after hearing the explosion and gunfire.

There’s a chunk of floor missing that’s filled with what he hopes is rain water. Their scuffling leads them to the makeshift pond and Tony’s being shoved under. It doesn’t go very deep, but it’s enough for his head to be fully submerged. Tony struggles against the tight hold, managing to push the man off once and taking a large lungful of air. He’s quickly pushed back down.

Tony feels more lightheaded the longer he’s under. There’s a wicked smirk on the man’s face, seeming to find pleasure in drowning Tony. The hunter suddenly looks in a direction that Tony can’t see and starts shouting. He’s quickly cut off by a loud _ bang _ and he drops, grip loosening on Tony.

Air has never felt better as he’s gasping once he sits up quickly. He spins around and finds Peter standing there, still holding his gun. When Tony looks at the body, he sees a clean shot through the head.

“Holy shit,” Peter breathes out, hands dropping. “I don’t think I want to see water for a while after that.”

“What the hell were you doing?” Tony demands, catching Peter off guard.

“What?” he asks. “I was saving your ass. You were kind of dying, if you didn’t notice that.”

“You could’ve missed.” Tony’s feeling irrationally angry in that moment. He knows if he stops and thinks it through, it’s just the fear of nearly dying still running through his veins. He couldn’t leave Peter alone in this hotel. “I thought you said your aim could’ve been better.”

“That’s not saying it’s complete shit,” Peter snaps back.”I do know how to shoot a gun, Tony. I’m not helpless.”

“I never said you were.” Tony huffs and runs a hand over his face. “Let’s just… let’s just get out of here.”

Peter rolls his eyes. “Yeah, whatever. Lead the way.”

They’re on another fire escape when they come across another group of hunters. Cursing under his breath, Tony keeps an eye on them all the while also trying to figure out a quiet way down to the ground. Peter’s still in the same mood he’s been in since they reunited, and Tony’s already tired of the teen’s attitude. Logically, he knows he’s the reason Peter’s even in a mood to begin with, but he doesn’t want to dwell on that.

“There’s a lot down there,” he says softly, peeking over the board they’re hiding behind. Someone made a makeshift hideout on this particular fire escape. If Tony has to guess, then he’d say someone used it once upon a time to keep travelers such as themselves out. As a sort of first guard to the back gate of the hotel.

“What should we do?” Peter asks, peeking over as well.

“We?” Tony repeats in disbelief. Peter glares at him and Tony softens. “Stubborn kid.” He watches the hunters for a moment more before sighing. “Alright, look. See that bank right there? Why you sneak in there and pick them off from that angle? Make sure you stay out of their sight at all costs. I’ll go to the café across the street and take them out from there. If you make any noise whatsoever, make sure you do it with a purpose. They will not hesitate to kill you. So you make sure to have that same force back.”

“Okay.” There’s a smile on Peter’s face, and Tony quickly looks away before he can think about what he’s doing. “Be careful out there, Tony.”

“You too.”

Tony looks at Peter once more before he’s sighing and sneaking off towards the right. Peter goes left and there’s a tense feeling in Tony’s gut as Peter passes right by the group, thankfully unnoticed. Tony lets out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding and goes the rest of the way.

The group splits apart from where they’ve been talking and start patrolling the confined area they’re in. Tony can’t see Peter anymore, and he worries a bit, but knows the kid can take care of himself. It still makes him worry, though.

There are a couple of hunters moving towards the café. Tony can’t make out what they’re talking about, but they’re talking in low voices. He moves further behind the counter and double checks to make sure his knife is in an easily reachable spot. As soon as one’s back is turned, he springs and kills the one closest to him. The hunter kicks the counter before dying, alerting the other one in the café.

Thankfully, he doesn’t start shooting. Instead, he moves closer to investigate, and that’s when Tony springs into action. The whole thing takes roughly five minutes, and Tony has yet to hear a sound from Peter’s side. When he risks a glance over, there’s a man lying dead in front of the bank. Furrowing his eyebrows, he gets into a position to be able to see over there. There’s a pause for a moment before Peter springs on the man in there, killing him much the same way Tony has been.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Tony whispers with a low chuckle.

They’re both able to take out most of the group quietly and end up meeting in the middle and hiding behind one of the stone statues in the middle of the courtyard. In front of them lays a camping layout, where Tony can only assume some of the men are staying. When Tony’s taking a peek around the corner, a shot rings out. There’s a sniper in the building in front of them.

“Shit,” Tony curses, hiding behind the base of the statue again. Peter’s eyes are wide. “There’s a sniper. Do you think you can cause a distraction while I try taking him out?”

“Yeah, of course. Be careful.”

“You too.”

Peter runs back towards the bank, catching the attention of the sniper. With the sniper’s attention on Peter, Tony hurries towards a door at the base of the building where he’s sat. After slipping through the door, Tony keeps an ear open to make sure the sniper is still in his perch as he makes his way up the stairs. When he reaches the second floor, he hears another shot ring out from a nearby room, and slowly walks over to it. He sees the sniper on the balcony just outside the window, his focus still intensely on what he’s doing.

Sneaking over, Tony takes out his knife before killing the sniper. “Nice gun,” he comments, checking it over and how many bullets it has. “Hey, Peter. Do you think this will come in handy?”

Peter stands up from where he’s hiding to look up at Tony. He has to shield his eyes from the sun and is quiet for a moment. “I don’t see why it wouldn’t,” he answers. “Take it with. We can use it later.”

“We?” Tony calls down playfully. Even as he’s climbing down, he can hear Peter laughing.

‘_Trying to navigate through this city is a bitch,’ _ Tony can’t help but think. It seems that around every corner, there were more hunters ready to pop out and try to kill them. Peter ran out of bullets at one point and just started throwing random heavy objects at them that Tony would finish off with whatever was lying around to swing with.

“God I can’t wait until we’re out of here,” Peter complains after the finished fighting another group on the street they’re on. “I’m so tired of the constant fighting.”

“What did you really expect, being out here?” Tony asks, raising an eyebrow. “Seriously, kid. People are fighting for their lives every day. You and I just killed a bunch that were on the losing end. One day, that’s going to be us. And I don’t know about you, but I’d really rather it not be today.”

Peter quiets down, looking away in shame. “I’m sorry,” he says softly.

Tony sighs. “Hey, Peter,” he says, putting a hand on the younger’s shoulder. “Look, I know it’s hard. This kind of shit… it’s not easy for anyone, okay? I promise you, once we’re out of here, we’ll avoid cities as much as possible.”

Peter snorts. “And if you see something that might be an invasion, you’ll turn away?”

“You know what, kid? Just for that, I’m not giving you the bullets I found.” Tony’s smirking as he turns on his heel and walks away. He hears Peter hurrying after him.

“Tony, wait!” he starts. He goes to see more, but he sees Tony snickering and instead pouts. “Rude.”

“Oh, uh. Before I forget.” Tony takes off his backpack and rummages through it for a bit. He does give Peter some ammo for his gun before successfully finding what he was looking for. “I found it back in the hotel. Before we met back up. I thought you would like it.”

Peter accepts the handed out comic quietly. He reads over the title and takes a shaky sigh. “Thank you, Tony,” he says sincerely. He then laughs a little. “What makes this funny is it’s the next issue in the series I’m reading.”

“Wait, really?” Tony asks in surprise. “Well, damn. Now that’s dumb luck.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” He looks at it for a moment longer. “Seriously, though. Thank you. And for, um. You know, trusting me to have your back and whatnot. It means a lot.”

“Yeah, anytime.” Tony gives Peter a smile before he continues back on their way. He’s walking slow enough that Peter can put the comic away and catch up.

“What’s our goal here?” Peter asks. “Like, what are you thinking?”

“Other than getting the hell out of here?” Tony asks with a raised eyebrow. “Staying off that truck’s rader, for one.”

They decide to cut through an alley behind an old movie theatre. Tony guess they’re likely in the downtown area. Buildings were stacked close to one another, the odd board being used to lead from one fire escape to the next. Businesses sitting abandoned and ransacked, their goods no longer being traded fairly.

The alley they’re cutting through has certainly seen better days. There’s an old dumpster tilted on its side, old garbage dumped out onto the walkway. He can see a bit of old blood on the corner of it, along with a sizeable dried puddle on the ground. Absentmindedly, he reaches for Peter, who isn’t more than an arm’s reach away.

“What?” the teen asks, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Just… stay by me,” Tony says. There’s a weird tension in his shoulders now.

They’re nearing the end of the alley when they suddenly hear voices. Tony can hear the sound of an engine running and instructs Peter to get down. The two of them hide along the wall of the building where Tony can hear the voices coming from. Luckily, they’re oblivious to the two males outside the wall.

“Fucking tourists,” one voice complains. “They keep killing our men. If we don’t catch them, they could kill our entire crew.”

“Two people taking out our crew?” the other asks incredulously, laughing. “They can’t get passed _ all _ of us, Jimmy. Just keep a sharp eye out.”

Tony leads Peter around the edge of the building where it leads out into the street again. He peeks around the corner to make sure there won’t be too much trouble before heading out. He takes out one guy quietly while crossing the street and hiding behind the old cars. Peter’s right on his heels the entire way.

They’re spotted once they reach the other side.

“Run!” Tony yells at Peter before booking it from building to building. They take cover behind old office desks and dumpsters before they make it into another alley. Tony doesn’t stop to check on Peter before they slip into an old apartment building. Peter’s bleeding heavily on one arm, but is overall fine.

“I’ll patch you up once we’re safe,” he tells the younger. Peter nods, trying not to wince too much.

The vehicle’s engine can still be heard, but there’s thankfully no shouting outside anymore. Just to be safe, Tony crosses one of the boards leading from one building to the next. As he’s hopping through one window to head inside, there’s a fist suddenly coming at him.

“Tony!” Peter shouts, startling the man punching Tony. Tony’s then able to get the upper hand. “Tony, stop!”

Tony looks up in shock at Peter, enough to allow the man he was hitting to get out from under him. There’s another man in the doorway pointing a gun at the two of them, but not shooting.

“Sam, it’s fine,” the blond tells the one at the door.

Sam seems to hesitate before doing just that. “Steve…” he warns.

“It’s fine.” Steve turns and looks at them. “Sorry for, uh, hitting you. I was aiming to kill you when I caught sight of your son over there. This group doesn’t exactly keep kids hanging around.”

“He’s not my son,” Tony says at the same time Peter’s muttering “I’m not a kid.” He’s standing protectively in front of Peter anyway. “You have a killer punch, by the way.”

Steve smirks, silently laughing at the pun Tony just said. “I gather your name is Tony, then?”

“I’m Peter,” the teen introduces, brushing easily past Tony. “What are you doing hiding in here? Is it because of the truck?”

“The fucking truck has been hounding us all week,” Sam speaks up. His gun has been put away by this point, but he doesn’t look any closer to relaxing. “We’ve been trying to leave this entire time. You guys have been the first people they’ve been after since we got into this damn town.”

“How’d they get their hands on a military grade turret?” Tony asks. He’s still hovering protectively next to Peter, though no one calls him out on it.

“Must’ve killed some military and swiped it,” Steve guesses.

“Hey, why don’t we team up?” Peter offers. “Safety in numbers.”

“I don’t know about that,” Tony says quickly. More people in their group means more people they have to watch. It’s already suspicious enough that these two men didn’t kill him and Peter, and Tony really doesn’t want to push his luck.

“How about this, we go to a safe place where we can stay for the night?” Steve suggests. “We compare how we’re going to get out, and we can work from there.”

“We don’t really have a way out,” Tony admits. “We’ve kinda just been running in circles trying to stay alive.”

“Even more reason to just rest for the night,” Sam points out. “We’re not asking you to come with us, but we know of a way out that might work. And if you want help, we’re offering it to you.”

Tony looks at Peter, who looks hopeful at the suggestion. Tony lets out a sigh. “Alright, fine. I want him to get some sleep.”

“Me? I slept on the way here. You’re the one who needs shut eye, old man,” Peter protests, giggling a little. “I’m surprised you haven’t fallen over in exhaustion.”

“I’m getting there,” Tony mutters. He clears his throat and addresses the two strangers. “Lead the way.”

Tony feels like he might collapse the moment they enter the office. Since Peter brought it up, he can feel unconsciousness clawing at him, willing him to go under. He blinks it away and sits down with Steve.

“We’re trying to get to a radio tower just on the other side of the city,” Steve tells him. He pulls out an old map and there’s arrows drawn on that he points to. “Easiest route there would be through here, but that means passing through one of their checkpoints.”

“How the hell do you expect to do that?” Tony asks. The plan’s a good one, he must admit. Slightly stupid, but good.

Steve stands up and gestures for Tony to go to a nearby window with him. They both look outside where there’s a bunch of hunters guarding the gate. There’s two snipers on the ledge above the gate, and more hunters straggling below. “At night, it goes down to a skeleton crew. Only one sniper and a handful of men. We want to go through it, then is the best opportunity. I’m not sure how good Peter is with a gun, but with three adults, going through it should be a breeze.”

Tony looks over where Peter and Sam are sitting on a nearby couch. Peter’s laughing hard as he and Sam try tossing blueberries into each other’s mouths. It’s the biggest kind of smile Tony’s ever seen on his face.

“Look, I don’t know what your relationship with the kid is, or why you two are travelling together,” Steve starts. “But it’s not safe in this city for anyone, especially a kid.”

Tony looks back over at Peter and he’s hit with a wave of familiarity. The paternal protectiveness never went away in the twenty years since it happened. He swallows thickly and forces himself back into the present. “We’re trying to get to the Fireflies,” he tells Steve. “A friend of mine used to be one. We’re hoping he still knows where a group might be.”

“Our plans line up,” Steve says. “We’ve been trying to find a group. We were running with this different group until we came into this city. We agreed to meet up at the tower, but… these hunters are ruthless. I’m pretty sure we’re the only ones left.”

Tony doesn’t know what to say in reply to that. “We better rest up for tonight, then.”

“Sleep anywhere you’d like in here. I’ll wake you up when we get ready to head out.” Steve walks over to Sam and takes a couple blueberries from the basket.

Tony watches them for a moment, just smiling to himself. Steve and Sam reminds him a lot of him and Pepper, only more… open about their relationship than they were. It’s refreshing, definitely. It had been Pepper’s idea to keep things on the downlow for a while. Tony really had been meaning to bring it up again when the whole situation with Peter happened.

Sighing softly, Tony settles more comfortably in the office chair he’s in. The fabrics torn in places with stuffing falling out, but it’s still one of the most comfortable things he’s sat in in a while. It doesn’t take him very long to fall asleep.

Steve keeps to his promise a few hours later. When Tony opens his eyes, it’s rather dark out. There’s a spotlight going outside from where the gate’s at, the guards there keeping an eye out for any infected or travelers to shoot on sight. Peter also looks more rested. Tony hopes he also got a nap in.

“You ready, kid?” he asks Peter. “Did you sleep?”

“I’m more than ready to leave this city,” Peter answers, chuckling. “And yeah, I slept for about an hour.”

They all sneak back downstairs and through a door Tony didn’t see earlier. They keep behind any junk lying in the street that will cover them from being spotted. Tony sneaks over to where there’s a generator sitting powering the spotlight. He turns it off before hurrying back over towards the others.

Peter stays hidden while the three adults take out the men there. There’s a semi blocking the path ahead of them, and Tony boosts Steve up before helping Sam up. As Peter’s getting ready to get on top of the semi to head over, the truck from earlier bursts onto the scene, shooting at all of them.

Tony hurriedly pushes Peter the rest of the way up, but Steve and Sam hesitate from where they’re standing. Tony’s ducking the flying bullets as best he can, waiting for a hand down to help him up.

“Sorry,” Steve apologizes before he and Sam take off.

“What the hell?” Peter asks before hopping down next to Tony. “We stick together, right?”

There’s an old bar they slip into, quickly closing the door they entered and blocking it. “Goddammit,” he curses, sitting on one of the bar stools. “I knew this was a mistake.”

“It’s my fault, Tony. I was the one suggesting we team up,” Peter says. He then sighs, hands on his hips. “Look, let’s just… we can figure out a way out of here.”

Tony runs a hand through his hair before standing up. He’s about to say something else when he spots a bridge through the front window of the bar. “There. That looks like a bridge out of town. If we can make it across, we should be able to lose them in the dark.”

“I’m following you,” Peter says firmly. “We’re a team.”

Tony smiles a little as he nods. “Right, c’mon.”

He peeks through the window and once he’s sure the truck isn’t out there waiting, they head outside. They suddenly hear the truck coming around the corner and instantly start shooting at them. The two of them quickly take off towards the bridge, not bothering to slow down once as they do.

Halfway across the bridge, they realise it’s collapsed in the middle, leaving them trapped. “We need to jump,” Peter says, looking down at the river below. “We have no choice.”

The truck is still shooting at them, its pace not slowing once despite the end of the bridge nearing. Peter doesn’t even wait for a response before turning and jumping into the river. Cursing, Tony jumps in after him.

Tony’s struggling for a few minutes, the cold water a shock to his system. He sees Peter struggling to stay afloat in the current, and swims over to him. Grabbing ahold of him tightly, Tony misses the large rock. He slams right into it.

When he comes to, he’s laying on the beach. Steve’s face is the first thing he sees, and he doesn’t hesitate to punch him. Peter’s yelling at him from somewhere behind him, but he doesn’t listen, pointing a gun straight at Steve.

“Why the hell should we trust you now?” he asks, his hold not wavering.

“You shouldn’t,” Steve answers honestly. “Look, there wasn’t enough time to get you up there without being shot to death.”

“You left us to die,” Tony snarls.

“Tony!” Peter yells. “Please, drop the gun. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t even be out of the river. They saved us.”

“You’re telling me you haven’t had to make a hard decision?” Steve’s voice is calm. They must’ve been expecting this reaction from Tony. “I didn’t like making that decision, Tony. Sam didn’t either. Please.”

There’s a hand on his arm and Peter comes into his field of view. “Please,” he says gently. “They redeemed themselves already, didn’t they?”

Swallowing thickly, Tony looks at Peter before sighing and dropping his gun. Steve relaxes and stands up, brushing the sand off of himself. “Do something like that again, and I won’t be as kind next time,” he tells the couple firmly.

Both Steve and Sam nod. “We understand.”

Peter sighs from next to him, thankful that Tony didn’t shoot Steve. “The beach is pretty big. Why don’t we split up and try to find something?” he suggests, shooting a pointed look at Tony.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Sam agrees. He whispers something to Steve before gently nudging him towards a random direction.

Once they’re out of earshot, Peter quickly turns to Tony. “Would shooting them really have accomplished anything?”

“No, but it would’ve felt nice,” Tony admits, grinning as Peter rolls his eyes.

“You’re the adult here, Tony,” Peter says, raising an eyebrow. “C’mon, let’s try to find a way off this beach.”

The beach itself would’ve been a pretty view had it not been littered with the boats that have washed ashore. Tony and Peter went into one of them to look around and found an entire family dead on board. Tony’s heart clenched when he saw the smallest body still clutched in the mother’s arms. They must’ve tried fleeing out to sea and gotten stuck, or ran out of supplies.

“C’mon, you don’t need to see that,” Tony says softly, wrapping an arm around Peter’s shoulders. Peter goes easily, an upset look still on his face. He can’t seem to stop staring at the corpse of the child.

“Tony! Peter! Over here, we found something,” Sam calls to their attention. When the pair get closer, Sam continues. “It looks like it’s a sewer of some sorts. We can cut through it.”

“Gross,” Peter mutters, but goes in behind Sam anyway.

Tony closes the entrance back up, hopefully warding off anybody who may happen to wander that direction. He flicks his flashlight on and follows behind the others, keeping at the back of the train.

“God, this place smells disgusting,” Peter complains, nose scrunched in distaste. “Why are we doing this again?”

Steve laughs. “So we’re out of sight from the hunters. And it doesn’t smell that bad, considering. It would’ve smelled a lot worse twenty years ago when it was still being actively used.”

“Gross,” Peter mutters once more, but all three men find amusement in the complaints. Peter suddenly aims his flashlight in the direction of one of tunnels branching off from the main one. He stops long enough for Tony to worry, and catch both Sam and Steve’s attention as well. “Do you guys see that?”

Tony looks in the direction Peter is and finds a set of double doors painted with a cartoon castle on them. Walking closer, Tony looks for any hidden spots as he slowly approaches the door. When nothing jumps out at them, he opens one of them. A crate full of glass bottles suddenly falls down, startling all four of them.

They’re still for a beat before Tony pushes forward. “Don’t think anybody’s using that sound alarm anymore,” he says, shining the light around.

“It looks like an old hide out,” Peter says. The area they’re in is dry, a scattering of supplies everywhere. Based on how wide it seems to be, there must be more areas that people used to live in. “What happened?”

“Apparently they thought it was safe,” Tony comments, looking at the area where kids toys lay.

They all look around the area, Steve wandering elsewhere to check out more of the area. Sam and Tony stayed in the main area to check for any supplies they could swipe to use. Tony didn’t see where Peter went.

“Something doesn’t feel right,” Sam says after a moment. “If they thought it was safe, why leave everything? It looks like they just took what was on them and left.”

“Not all of them left,” Steve says, walking back out. “I found four corpses in one of locked off rooms. Three of them were kids.”

“Christ,” Tony breathes out. “What the hell happened here?

Peter then decides to come out of one of the rooms. He’s holding a journal in his hands. “Someone found this place a while back. Thought it was a good place to hole up,” he says, flipping through the pages. “Invited a couple families with young kids to stay with him. There’s no entry on what happened, though. It just… cuts off suddenly.”

“Like I said,” Sam adds. “They up and left. There has to be a reason.”

“They sound so happy.” Peter’s still flipping through the journal. “The owner of this was trying to start a life with one of the women. They used rain for water. The kids played with water guns, learned their alphabet, and how to count.” He lets out a sad laugh. “They really thought they were invisible down here.”

“There’s only two explinations that would cause people to leave a self-made haven.” Steve looks pained as he points it out. “Hunters or infected.”

“What about military?” Peter’s looking up from the journal for the first time since coming back out. “Wouldn’t they chase people out?”

“I think the nearby zone had already shut down by the time the people found this place. The Pittsburg zone was one of the first to be abandoned.” Steve looks back towards the area where he came from. “Based on what I saw, it’s been quite a while since these people were here.”

“I suggest we find a way out of here, then,” Tony says. He notices Peter has no intentions of putting the journal down. Sighing softly, he gestured to the kid to turn around and slipped it into his backpack. “It’s a miracle your back hasn’t given out with all the reading material you’ve managed to collect.”

“I get rid of the books once I finish reading them,” Peter defends with a pout.

The hideout slowly disappears behind them the deeper they go. It leaves an odd feeling settle in Tony’s stomach, and he tries to will it away. None of them even know where they’re going, so they’re screwed if they run into anything.

As if on cue, there’s familiar sounds coming from one of the rooms ahead. Tony signals Peter to be quiet and stay cautious as he creeps forward. Peering around the corner, he sees a ton of infected there. Clickers, mostly, but also a lot of stalkers. He mouths “infected” to the others before spotting a door at the other side of the room. Based on the way light was shining in through a window above it, it was a door out.

Letting out a breath, he gestured for one of the other adults to come forward. When Steve does, he points at the window, and he looks about as happy at the news as Tony expected.

“Stay right on my heels,” Tony whispers to Peter. “Do not make a noise if you can help it. Stay out of view from stalkers. And when I give the signal, you run and don’t look back.”

Peter looks nervously at Tony before nodding. “Be safe.”

“You too.”

He looks at the other two to make sure they’re also ready before they slowly creep into the room. Tony has his bow and arrow out, taking out the stalkers quietly before they can spot any of them. The clickers are far easier to pass by, but not any less scary.

Peter suddenly trips over his own feet, causing his hands to smack loudly against the cement when he catches himself. It instantly alerts all of the infected in the room, leaving them halfway in and suddenly surrounded.

“Peter, run! To the door!” Tony shouts at Peter as he fights off a clicker that’s attacking him. Peter shoots at a couple before thankfully following instruction and running towards the exit. “We won’t be able to kill all of these.”

“Then do your best to make it through,” Steve grunts out, shooting at the other infected.

Tony sees a moment of opportunity and quickly takes it. Once he’s at the door, he throws a bomb into the room before gesturing Steve and Sam through the open door. The bomb goes off, and the explosion is enough of a distraction to allow Tony to slip through himself.

Steve and Sam quickly block off the door. Peter’s staring at something on the side of the building. “Are you shitting me?” he asks, frustrated. “Thanks for the warning on the other side.”

On the side of the building, in bright red letters, is _ ‘Warning: do not enter. Infected inside’ _. Tony can’t help but snort. “Well, have to give them credit for leaving one at all. Probably didn’t expect someone to go in from the other side.”

Peter huffs, and Tony shakes his head fondly.

With the way the wind is slowly picking up around them, Tony has a suspicion that there’s a storm coming. The clouds don’t look any darker than normal, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Peter shivers a bit and pulls his shirt sleeves over his hands. He’s chatting with Sam, who seems to be quieter than normal. Usually, he’s a lot more animated while talking with Peter. It puts Tony a bit on edge.

The suburb they walk into is small. There’s a couple wild dogs at the end of the street, barking and preparing to fight one another. Peter lights up at seeing them, but Tony puts a hand on his arm. “Wild dogs,” he explains. “Don’t go near them.”

“Did any of you live in a suburb?” Peter asks, looking at the different houses. They walk into one and Peter’s eyes scan the bookshelf sitting in the living room. If Steve wasn’t so insistent on getting to the radio tower, Tony might suggest they stay in one of these houses for the night. Might even be able to wait out the storm in it.

“I didn’t,” Tony answers. “My house was a bit too big to fit in one.”

Steve snorts. “I didn’t. I lived in a tiny apartment in New York City. My memories are kind of hazy now, but I remember complaining about the cigar smell coming from the apartment next door.”

“I did, but I don’t remember too much of it,” Sam answers. “One of my sharpest memories is the smell of cook-outs in the backyard. My whole family would gather around on the odd weekend and just… be together. I miss those days the most.”

Peter smiles over at him. “We should do that one day,” he decides. “Pretend that everything around us isn’t absolute shit and just celebrate being alive.”

A weird look passes over Sam’s face, but it’s over before anybody can catch it. The only reason Tony saw it was because he was already looking at Sam. He can’t explain it, but the man’s sudden weird behavior doesn’t add up.

“C’mon, the radio tower is just on the other side of the suburb. We should get there before it gets too late.” Steve’s already just outside the front door, looking at something in the distance. Tony guesses it’s the tower.

They’re cutting between a couple of houses when they hear a gun go off. Steve’s in front and tells them to wait while he goes ahead to check it out. On the street on the other side of the houses sits a couple of rusted cars. Steve hides behind one and peeks around it. He gestures for them to come over to where he is, and stay hidden.

“Sniper, house on the end,” he whispers to them.

Tony quickly looks at Peter. “Remember our plan from last time?” Peter nods. “Good, let’s do that again.”

“Be safe.”

“You too, kid.”

Tony’s panting. He hates admitting that his age is catching up to him, but it is. Fighting off the group of hunters that came out of nowhere in the suburbs was tiring. Not to mention also having to run from the truck. The only reason they beat them was dumb luck. A well aimed bomb fell into the truck when one of the guys came up to throw a molotov cocktail at them.

It didn’t help matters any when infected came running towards all the gunfire.

“I told you this place would be worth it,” Steve tells him that night, chuckling softly. “There’s plenty of food to last us a while if we ration it carefully. It’s a shame we weren’t able to meet anybody from our group, though.”

Tony shrugs. “I’m more amazed we made it out of there alive,” he tells Steve honestly. He pauses, catching sight of Peter slipping into the next room where Sam’s taking stock of all their stuff. “They really took together like a match to paper, huh?”

“Yeah. It’s good to see everybody in good spirits.” Steve sighs softly. “It’s good to see Sam smiling, after everything. His sister was also in our group. Not finding her has been hard on him.”

Tony bites his lip. “How long have you two been together?” he asks, hoping he isn’t prying.

“A couple years.” Steve doesn’t seem to mind at all. In fact, he’s smiling wide and his cheeks turned a cute rosy color. “It’s hard, you know? Trying to survive every single day. But… it’s always better when there’s someone there with you. Turns surviving into living.” He nods towards the door. “Same could be said for family.”

Tony doesn’t know how to reply to that. Though they haven’t been together long, Tony already considers the teen as family. It’s a difficult pill to swallow, all things considering. Especially since he can’t help but feel like he’s replacing Harley. He shakes his head at the thought. No use in getting attached, anyway. Not with their mission still very much active.

He isn’t sure when he falls asleep, but when he wakes up, Peter and Steve are talking quietly together. Steve’s cooking breakfast over a small fire. When Peter looks up, he grins at seeing Tony awake.

“Morning, Sleeping Beauty!” he greets. “Doesn’t this smell good? God, I can’t wait to eat more of your cooking, Steve. Tony just doesn’t do it justice.”

“Hey, I resent that.” He looks around a minute and frowns. “Where’s Sam?”

“Still asleep, I think.” Peter quickly stands up. “I’ll go get him.”

He walks into the adjacent room, and Tony stays sitting on the floor. He’s letting himself wake up without feeling like he needs to rush to be somewhere for once when Peter suddenly screams.

Both him and Steve are suddenly alert. Peter’s stumbling out of the room, falling onto his back and trying to fight off an infected Sam. “Shit, he’s turning,” Tony yells, reaching for his backpack to grab his gun.

Tony yelps when a bullet grazes the top of his head. His head snaps in the direction of Steve, who’s pointing a gun right at him. “That’s my partner,” he says through tears. The words are like a shock to Tony. Bruce’s fallen face when they found Thor’s body fills his mind.

But Peter’s still screaming and trying to get Sam off of him, so he quickly pushes the thought away. He reaches for his gun again, but another shot rings out, and Sam’s body falls to the floor.

Peter crawls over to Tony, who’s still looking at Steve. The poor man looks like he’s in utter disbelief at what he’s done. “Steve…” he says cautiously, putting his hands up when the gun’s trained on him again. “C’mon, buddy. Just… just calm down.”

Instead of shooting either him or Peter, however, Steve turns the gun on himself.

“Steve!”


	5. fall

“Do you even know where we’re going?” Peter asks, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. He had actually forgotten about it, for a brief time. His backpack certainly looks more deflated now that it’s out. “You don’t even know where Rhodey’s at.”

“He’s somewhere in Jackson, I know that much,” Tony admits. He pulls his own jacket closer as the cold wind blows around them. “Where exactly that is, I don’t know.”

“How exactly did you two seperate?” Peter kicks a loose rock on the road, and he can see Tony shaking his head at him out of the corner of his eye. “If you’re so sure he’ll help us, you two must’ve been close at one point.”

“I’ve known him since I was your age,” Tony admits, his voice going soft. Peter looks up and notices a faraway expression on the older’s face. “Rhodey used to pull me out of my lab, back before. I’d spend hours working on new projects, blasting my music, and I would often forget about the time. I spent too many nights locked up in there, not taking care of myself. It was almost always Rhodey pulling me out of there.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” Peter points out, though not unkindly. Getting information out of Tony about anything of his life before was like pulling teeth. He’s thankful for anything he can get.

Tony goes quiet again. Peter doesn’t say anything else as he waits for Tony to collect his thoughts. “We, uh. Got into a pretty nasty fight,” he says after a moment. “I think the Fireflies are a joke and he… he believed pretty strongly in them. It’s why he joined for a while. Then shit really hit the fan, and he left. I can’t even remember what the argument was even about anymore.”

“And you’re sure he’s willing to help?”

Tony stops walking, and it takes a second for Peter to notice. When he does, he turns and looks at the man, but his face looks like he’s looking elsewhere. Lost in a memory, most likely. Again, Peter doesn’t speak up and break through the man’s train of thought.

“Pretty sure, yeah,” Tony says. He gives Peter a small smile before letting out a breath and walking forward once more.

Their walk through the woods leads them to a large plant. It isn’t anything like Peter’s ever seen before. It’s sat on the river, a small building greeting them as water falls over a small stone wall. Water pools out of a small man made pond and flows out towards the rest of the river in a constant motion.

“Uh, what the hell is that?” Peter asks, stopping in his tracks to stare up at it. The water running through is pretty noisey, but it isn’t loud enough to drown them out entirely from talking.

“It’s a hydroelectric power plant,” Tony answers. “It uses the river’s moment and turns it into electricity. It’s obviously been shut down since, but it looks like it’s still in working condition.”

“Wow,” Peter breaths out. “So, like, it can generate electricity without gas? That’s, like, limitless. Did everyone use this back then?”

“Sadly, no.” Tony sighs softly, looking up at the large front of the plant. “Cities couldn’t use this kind of power unless they were near a large body of water. Like coast cities, or any place along a river or lake with a strong enough current. Inland places didn’t have this sort of luxury.”

“Oh,” is all Peter says. “It’s still pretty cool to see.”

Tony smiles. “Yeah, it is, isn’t it?”

They don’t waste much longer staring at the plant before moving their way through. When they get to what Peter assumes is the front gate, Tony lets out an irritated huff.

“There’s no way around it,” he explains, seeing Peter’s look of confusion. “We’ll have to cut through if we want to make it to the other side.”

He heads over to the gate and starts pulling it open. Peter hears the sound of a gun cocking and he’s instantly pulling his out, pointing it straight at the woman who appears at the top of the wall.

“Hands where I can see them,” she demands. “Put your guns down.”

“Like hell I will,” Peter mutters to himself.

“Wait, don’t shoot,” a male voice calls out. There’s a pause before the gate’s opening and a black man is stepping through. “Tony…”

“Rhodey.” Tony instantly pulls the other man into a tight hug. Rhodey returns the hug in kind.

Peter puts his gun away, but he’s still eyeing the woman who steps up beside Rhodey. Peter doesn’t know either of them, so he sticks closer to Tony.

“So this is Tony,” the woman comments, holding out her hand. “I’m Carol. Rhodey’s wife.”

“Wife?” Tony asks, chuckling a little as he shakes her hand. “Nice grip.”

“You too,” she says with a wink before turning towards the teen. “Who are you?”

Peter looks at Tony a minute before looking back at Carol. She’s giving him a friendly grin, a stark contrast to when she was pointing a gun at him a moment ago. “Peter,” he replies, a bit quietly. Tony gives him an odd look, but doesn’t say anything.

“Thought I’d find you in Jackson,” Tony admits, following the couple through the gates. Carol shouts something about friendlies to the others hovering around the entrance holding their weapons. Peter swallows thickly at the sight.

“Yeah, well. Accidentally stumbled across this place. Carol was trying to set something up with her friend Maria and a couple families that found their way over here. Nearly shot me on sight until I explained I was alone,” Rhodey explains. “We’re trying to get this place up and running. More people have wandered through here, and once they prove they’re not trying to kill us, we welcome them in.” He then nods to Carol, a joking grin on his face. “I’d be nice to her, by the way. She runs things around here.”

After a bit, Peter tunes them out. They’re walking towards what he assumes to be the main building when something spots his eye. “No way,” he says, grinning as he walks over to them. “You have horses.”

“A full stable,” Carol says proudly. “You can pet them, if you’d like.”

Still smiling widely, Peter gently reaches a hand out and strokes along the side of the horse’s face. “You’re so beautiful,” he tells it, smiling when the horse huffs out in response.

“He likes it when you pet his ears,” Carol speaks up after a moment.

Peter does just that, laughing as the horse leans his head towards the teen. “Wow. I wish I could ride it. I miss the feeling.”

“If you stick around, we have a small area where we run them,” Rhodey says, standing next to his wife. “As long as someone’s with you, you’re more than welcome to ride them.”

“When have you ridden a horse?” Tony asks, looking lost. “There weren’t any in the zone.”

“Oh, uh.” Peter turns pink. “My friend and I befriended this older soldier. He had a horse named Princess that he taught us to ride on.”

Tony seems to sense an underlying message there, and nods in acceptance. “Alright.”

Just then, Rhodey gets a call through his walkie talkie. He steps away a moment to answer it. With him gone, Carol turns back to Peter. “Are you hungry?”

“Starving,” Peter answers honestly.

“I can show you guys to the cafeteria, if you’d like. Get some food in you,” she offers.

“I actually need to talk to Rhodey about something. I’ll meet you guys when we’re done,” Tony says, looking at said man as he returns.

“They’re going to try turning the power on,” he tells them. “I’ll head down there with Tony and supervise. We can talk once it’s done.”

“Tony…” Peter says quietly, reaching absentmindedly towards the older.

Tony gives him a small smile. “Just go with Carol, alright? You were complaining about an hour ago about you were about to ‘starve to death’. We’ll be quick, alright?”

Peter bites the inside of his cheek. “Alright.”

“I promise I don’t bite,” Carol teases as the two men walk away. They head in a different direction. “So, how did you and Tony meet?”

“Uh, back in the Boston zone. Someone I know asked him for a favor,” Peter explains carefully. “And… here we are.”

“Boston? You’re a bit away from home.” Carol shakes her head. “What favor, if I may ask?”

Peter unconsciously pulls his sleeve further down. “Uh… long story.”

Carol nods, accepting the answer. They walk into the cafeteria and Peter’s stomach growls at the smell of food. Carol laughs and gestures for him to help himself. Once they get their food and find a quiet place to sit, Peter turns to Carol.

“Does Tony hate kids?” he can’t help but ask. “I mean, it’s not like he treats me bad or anything, but he always seems to close himself off after a certain point. It’s like I can’t break past some wall, or I’m just not allowed to.”

Carol’s quiet for a moment, stirring her soup absentmindedly. “Tony’s… complicated, from what Rhodey’s told me. Once he gets hurt, he puts up a guard. It’s one of the reasons Rhodey got fed up and left.”

“But I haven’t really done anything to put that guard up,” Peter says, going through all his memories with Tony to find a glaring hole.

“It’s not you.” She sighs softly. “Tony had a son before the infection. His name was Harley. He died during the period of initial outbreak when they were trying to leave Miami.” Carol pokes at her food again. “I’ve never met Tony before today, but apparently Rhodey noticed him get a lot quieter after that. More reserved, I guess.”

“I don’t think he’s _ that _ bad,” Peter protests.

Carol just shrugs. “I don’t know him well enough to make that call. I’m just going off what Rhodey’s told me.”

Peter can’t help but worry over the possibilities of what Tony and Rhodey’s talk may be. Tony wasn’t willing to give Peter any details, but it would be stupid to assume it wasn’t about him. Their whole purpose of finding Rhodey in the first place is to get information about the Fireflies.

He’s broken out from his thoughts when the lights suddenly flicker on, filling the room with artificial light. Peter can’t help but smile seeing it. It hasn’t been too often that he’s seen electricity turn on. Not since…

Carol’s hand lands on his shoulder, thankfully breaking him out of the downward spiral his thoughts were surely heading towards. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” she asks him. “And all of this is being powered by the river.”

Even though Peter still doesn’t know Carol too well, she seems friendly enough that Peter has let his guard down the longer he’s around her. She clearly has good interests at heart, and Peter can’t fault her for introducing him to her gun first.

They’re nearing the end of their meal when shots suddenly ring out. An alarm blares from around them, making Peter’s ears start to ring from the volume. He turns to Carol, panicked, and she’s swiftly getting to her feet.

“Someone’s attacking the plant,” she tells him. “C’mon, let’s see if we can get an eye on what’s going on.”

Peter takes his gun out and follows her. He’s not sure what’s happening, but Carol’s movements are hurried enough that it makes goosebumps raise on his arms. All around them are people hurrying towards the commotion, most things left where they are as they go to protect their home. When they make it outside, they have to duck behind a stray crate as hunters shoot up at them.

“Fuck,” Carol curses under her breath. She aims at one of the hunters and gets him right in the forehead. His accomplice doesn’t seem happy at that, and shoots up at where the pair’s hiding. Peter yelps when his shoulder’s barely missed. “Shit. Okay, kid. I know a place where we can hide for the time being. It’ll be more protected.”

Carol leads him back into the building and into an office area. There’s a closed off area where Peter assumes the supervisor must’ve been, and locks the door. Peter hides behind the desk while Carol uses the door as protection and peeks out the window every so often. Peter’s suddenly glad he’s away from the windows when they’re suddenly shattered, glass flying everywhere.

When he looks up, men have poured into the connecting room and are shooting at them. Carol’s doing her best to hold them off, but she can’t take all of them on her own. Calming the shake in his hands, Peter raises his own gun and starts shooting. Thankfully, he manages to hit a few, causing him to smirk to himself.

“Rhodey, do you hear me? We’re surrounded,” Carol speaks quickly into her radio. “I’ve got the kid with me in the office, but I’m not sure how much longer we’ll be able to hold them off.”

Peter doesn’t get to hear what Rhodey’s response is because he’s quickly diving away when one of the hunters comes out of nowhere and tries hitting him with a large pipe. “Fucker!” Peter yells, throwing a kick towards his gut before kicking the pipe out of his hand. Fumbling with his gun, Peter curses under his breath before shooting at him before the hunter could grab the pipe again.

“Peter!” Carol calls out. “Are you okay?”

“Never better,” Peter replies dryly, picking up the pipe for himself. “Let’s see how good my swing is.”

He doesn’t get a chance to use it, however, because Rhodey and Tony are suddenly bursting into the room. They kill off whoever is still in there and take a breather. It’s then that Peter notices that the gunfire has stopped everywhere.

“Carol?” Rhodey calls out at the same time Tony’s calling out for Peter.

Peter scrambles out from where he’s hiding and feels nothing but relief when he spots Tony. “Holy shit, Tony. You should’ve seen me. There was this big guy trying to get me, but I kicked him and managed to get the upper hand. It was so—”

“Are you hurt?” Tony asks, cutting Tony off. “Holy shit, your shoulder.”

“Oh, yeah. Don’t worry, it’s not that bad.” Peter peeks down and it and winces when he sees a bit of blood.

Tony looks at it for a moment. “You should be alright. Christ, seeing that blood scared me.”

“I’m fine, Tony. Other than that, I dove out of the way for everything.” There’s a smile on Peter’s face. “I kicked his ass.”

“Tones?” Rhodey calls out, getting both of their attention. “I need to speak with Carol a minute. I’ll meet you two outside, alright?”

Peter stares at Tony a moment and there’s a strange look on his face that he can’t decipher. There’s a hand on his back pushing him forward and Peter goes with it, being led outside to wait while the couple talks.

It doesn’t take long before the sound of an argument sounds and Peter looks at Tony for help. “What the hell is that about?” he asks.

“Don’t worry, kid. We’ll talk about it later,” he dismisses.

“Does it have to do with me?” Peter presses. If they’re arguing because of him, he thinks he has a right to know.

“I said we’ll talk about it later,” Tony says more firmly, giving Peter a look as he sits down on top of a barrel.

Peter glares at him before storming away. He eyes the horses and a small smile fills his face. He’s petting it when Carol suddenly comes storming out, heading straight for Tony. If Peter listens closely, he can hear what she’s upset about.

“You come into my home demanding that my husband go and risk his life to finish _ your _ mission?” she demands. Peter’s heart drops at the words. “Look, I like the kid. But one fuck up and I’m a widow, and it’s all _ your _ fault.”

Peter can’t stand to hear the rest of the conversation. With no one keeping an eye on the horses, what with everybody cleaning up after the fight, he takes the reins on one of them and sneaks over towards the front gate. Just as he’s opening the gate, he hears shouting from behind him. Without looking back, he gets on the horse and quickly rides off, not giving it a second thought.

There’s a prickling sensation in his eyes, and he furiously blinks away any oncoming tears that threaten to fall. It seems that Tony didn’t trust him as much as Peter thought he did. The moment he could, Tony’s passing him off.

Natasha did the same thing to him, Peter reminds himself. But Natasha barely gave him a second glance over the years. He became an annoyance after May’s death that only clung to her because she was the only familiar face he knew at the time.

Peter doesn’t even know where he's going, but at this point, he doesn’t care. It’s reckless and stupid, he’s knows, but he doesn’t want to be near Tony. The entire time they’ve been together feels like it’s been a lie because Tony’s still been planning to hand him off to the next person so he doesn’t have to deal with him anymore.

A ranch house comes into view, and he blinks away the tears and heads in that direction. After tying the horse to one of the posts on the porch, he heads inside. Luckily, there’s nobody in there when he gets there. He thanks his lucky stars and pokes around the first floor before heading up. The house is rather spacious with four bedrooms and two bathrooms being upstairs alone. Not really feeling like looking through anything, Peter goes into one of the bedrooms at the end of the hall.

Slumping down on the window seat, he looks through the books that are messily thrown around on it. He guesses the room used to belong to a teenage girl, back before. The house was still in decent condition with most of its belongings still within in the walls. If he has to guess, then he’d say it being so far in the woods was a deterrent for people

Letting out a sigh, Peter leans against one wall of the seat and lays his legs out in front of him. He doesn’t quite fit, so he just moves his feet closer to himself and props up the journal he found on his thighs.

He’s barely into it when he sees two horses ride up to the house. He tenses up before he realises it’s just Rhodey and Tony looking for him. He doesn’t bother moving from his position. Instead, he goes back to reading the journal, calling out a “Up here” when Tony calls his name.

Tony doesn’t speak when he enters the room, only huffing when he sees Peter in one piece in the bedroom.

“It’s bizarre how different life was back then,” Peter comments, glancing up at Tony before looking back at the journal. “All this girl had to worry about was getting good grades and wondering if her crush would ever notice her.”

“Get up,” Tony commands. It sounds rougher than Peter’s ever heard being spoken to him. It makes the anger in him flare up once more. “We’re leaving.”

“If I say no?” Peter still doesn’t move. He can see it’s only angering Tony further.

“Do you have any idea how stupid running off like that was?” Tony asks, putting his hands on his hips. “Putting yourself at unnecessary risk? You could’ve gotten killed, Peter.”

“Well being a disappointment to you isn’t a new feeling anyway.” Peter closes the journal and tosses it back on the window seat as he stands up.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tony’s words are sharp. It makes Peter pause a moment.

“You’re passing me onto Rhodey, Tony,” Peter answers. “Obviously no matter how much time we spend together won’t ever make you tolerate me. Guess I was a fool for thinking otherwise.”

Tony lets out a humorless laugh. “He knows this area, Peter. He knows where to find the Fireflies. I trust him to know what he’s doing.”

“That’s not the point.” Peter shakes his head. “What are you so scared of, Tony? I can’t even get infected! And I thought I proved to you long ago that I can hold my own.”

“Do you even know how many close calls we’ve had so far?” Tony demands. “Because it seems to me, you’re more interested in yourself.”

“Oh, that’s rich coming from you,” Peter snaps. “Passing me off onto someone else because I’m not who you want me to be.”

Tony pauses then, his eyes narrowing. “You better not be talking about who I’m thinking you are.”

Peter swallows thickly, his whole resolve crumbling. He hates seeing Tony looking so angry at him. Unfortunately, this is a much needed conversation. “Carol told me about Harley,” he announces. “He was my age when he died, wasn’t he?”

“You are treading on mighty thin ice right now,” Tony hisses out. There’s a flicker of something playing in his eyes. Peter has a difficult enough time trying to meet Tony’s eyes at all without trying to figure out the depths of how Tony’s feeling.

“I’m sorry about your son, Tony,” Peter says. His anger feels like it’s died out, replaced by another emotion. “But I’ve lost people, too.”

“You have no idea what it feels like.” Tony looks like he’s barely holding it together. Peter already feels the guilt crawling up his spine.

“Everyone I’ve ever cared about has either died, or left me.” Peter walks closer to Tony before shoving him back a step. “Everyone fucking except for you.” There are tears in his eyes now, and he doesn’t bother hiding them. “And you can shove me off onto someone else all you want, but honestly it’ll just make me more scared.”

Tony suddenly closes his expression off and stands up straight. “You’re right,” he starts. His voice is void of emotion, and Peter hates it. “You’re not my son, and I’m not your dad. And we _ are _ going our separate ways.”

Peter clenches his jaw as he stares at Tony. Tony doesn’t have anything to add to that, so he’s quickly walking out the door. Wiping away his tears quickly, Peter slowly follows after him, feet practically dragging against the old flooring as he does.

Rhodey’s waiting for them outside. Peter doesn’t doubt his eyes are still red from crying, but he’s thankful when the other man doesn’t ask about what happened. Simply, they all climb on their respective horses and start making their way back to the dam

In his opinion, everything that needed to be said already was. None of them say anything as they slowly travel back. He catches Tony glancing at him every so often, but can’t find it in himself to even look in the elder’s direction. There’s still an uncomfortable feeling sitting heavy in his gut at the thought of going off with Rhodey instead of Tony.

They stop at an overlook over the dam. Peter can see how spread out it is from up here, and he smiles a little at seeing all the different families milling about. It’s Tony who finally breaks their silence.

“How far away are the Fireflies?” he asks, looking over at Rhodey. Peter internally rolls his eyes.

“At a university in Colorado, last I heard,” Rhodey answers. “At, uh. University of Eastern Colorado. In their science building.”

Tony nods. Peter doesn’t understand why Tony’s even asking until he hears, “Give Rhodey his horse back, Peter.”

“What?” he asks, more out of shock than anything.

“Don’t make me repeat myself,” Tony says, teasing a bit.

Peter looks at Rhodey before sliding off his horse. Still confused, he hands the reins to Rhodey. When he looks back over at Tony, he’s patting the space behind him. Grinning, Peter walks over and accepts the outstretched hand to pull him up onto the horse behind Tony.

“I’m sorry for stealing your horse,” Peter tells Rhodey, who chuckles in response. “Hope you don’t mind us taking this one.”

“Are you sure, Tony?” Rhodey asks, eyeing the two of them.

Tony’s quiet a moment. “Are you good?” he asks Peter.

Peter’s smiling as he answers. “I’m good.”

“What’s the science building look like, do you know?” Tony asks.

Rhodey sighs softly, seemingly giving up to Tony. He’s already made up his mind, and they all know it. “It looks like a giant mirror. You can’t miss it.”

“I’ll be seeing you, then, Rhodey. Thank you for the visit.” He smirks a little and winks at Rhodey. “Tell Carol I said goodbye.”

“From me, too!” Peter adds, making both adults chuckle.

“I will.” Rhodey looks at them a moment longer. “Stay safe out there, Tones.”

“Aren’t I always?” Tony jokes. He gives Rhodey one last smile before turning the horse a different way and starting their journey to Colorado.

The campus is large. Multiple buildings spread out over an expansive amount of land. Peter can’t even see most of it as they ride up to the front gate. There are vines crawling up the sides of the brick buildings, twisting and curving around the windows and doors. Banners lay half on the wall, speckled in a fine layer of dirt. Some are torn and wind beaten, but manage to stubbornly stay up. There’s a guide map at the front of the moss coated sidewalk, and they make a stop at it.

Sliding off the horse, Peter pulls his sleeve over his hand to wipe off the glass on the map to be able to see it clearer. His fingers dance lightly over it as he tries to spot the building they’re looking for.

“Any luck?” Tony asks from his position on the horse.

Peter bites his bottom lip as he looks over it. “Uh… oh! We have to go to the courtyard, take a left, and it’s a little past the dorms,” he says. He suddenly gets an idea and pulls the old journal out of his backpack.

“What are you doing?”

“Drawing the map in case we get lost,” Peter answers, already scribbling away. It isn’t good by any means, but he’ll be able to read it if need be. “Figured with a campus as big as this one, it won’t hurt.”

“Oh.” Tony goes quiet again, and Peter glances up and sees a proud smile on his face. “Good thinking, kid.”

Peter can’t stop smiling as he finishes it up.

They go as a leisurely pace through the university. Peter’s looking all around at everything the school as to offer, amazed by all the sights. “Did you go to university? You know, back before.”

“I did, actually.” Peter can’t see his face, but he likes to think Tony’s smiling. “It’s where I met Rhodey.”

“Really? What’d you study?” Peter eyes a nearby building, which had been crushed by a fallen tree. It appears the tree had been cut up and moved at one point, making it easy to look right inside of it.

“Mostly tech and science things,” Tony answers. “It’s been so long since I’ve had to use what I learned that I can’t really remember my major anymore. Took a few years of Italian.”

“I know Spanish,” Peter adds with a grin. “My friend taught me since it was her mom’s native language. Whenever we didn’t want to get caught, we’d speak in Spanish. It worked like a charm.”

Tony laughs. “I tried doing the same thing with Rhodey, but it didn’t work. He wasn’t able to pick up Italian well enough to get away with it.” They’re approaching the dorms when Tony stops the horse. “You know… no one’s expecting us at the end. Want to take a minute to look around?”

Grinning, Peter nods quickly.

They both dismount and Tony ties the horse up to one of the trees in front of the dorm building. Its branches look more spidery with the lack of leaves on them, reaching outwards in all directions. Peter smiles as he looks around at all the different colored leaves covering the ground.

“Fall’s my favorite time of year,” Peter announces as they walk into the building. It’s in a state of dire disrepair. Walls are crumbling and pieces of the floor are missing. The scent of mold is thick in the air, and Peter scrunches his nose at it.

“I think it’s thickest on this level. Let’s head up,” Tony suggests, pointing to the nearby stairs. “Unless you want to check these rooms out first.”

Peter glances over at them. The doors are mostly open with some stuff spilling out of them. Curiosity gets the better of him and he wanders over without giving Tony an answer. There’s a thin layer of dust in the air, but the furniture in the room is coated. Most of the stuff appears as if it hasn’t been touched since the university was evacuated. Blankets and old clothes lay in tatters all over the floor. Personal items spilling out everywhere, and Peter’s heart drops when he sees old family photos tacked onto the wall.

“It’s always so hard seeing photos,” he says, running his fingers gently over one. “They all look so happy. So… clueless about what’s to come.”

“Because we were.” Tony’s sitting on the bottom bunk to the left of Peter. It creaks under his weight, but holds. “We were… told about a possible virus spreading through bad crops. Stuff was recalled, vaccinations were attempted. Everybody assumed it would pass quickly, like everything else, but…”

“But it didn’t,” Peter finishes. He stares back at the photo. “I can’t even imagine what having that sort of ignorance is like. All my life, _ all I know_, is surviving. Trying not to get bitten or killed. It’s unfair.”

Tony lets out a soft laugh. “Yeah, well… life’s unfair, kid.”

Peter’s hand drops and he sighs. He looks around the dorm they’re in again. “There’s so much stuff in here,” he jokes. “And it was only two people. There’s more here than I’ve owned my entire life.” He bends down and picks up a necklace off the floor. It’s a small pendant of the letter _ ‘M’ _ and Peter’s hit with a wave of guilt. “Can you, um. Can you put this on me?”

“‘Course.” Tony doesn’t ask why Peter wants the necklace, nor what the letter means to him. Peter knows that Tony’s burning to ask, but gently clips the necklace around his neck.

They loot through the rest of the dorms on the first floor before finally going to the next one. Tony’s suddenly shushing him when they hear movement. Peter notices spores pouring out of the floor and gently pushes Tony further up the stairs before they can go any further.

When they get to the third and final floor, Tony’s giving him an odd look. “Spores,” Peter explains. “I think there’s infected on that level. We should be careful here in case there’s anymore.”

Tony nods, and they continue on with their searching.

“Did I ever tell you how Rhodey and I met?” Tony asks as they’re looking through one of the dorms. Tony’s picking through the nearby desk and reading a few of the papers. Peter’s looking through the clothes to see if there’s anything he can salvage for winter.

“You hardly tell me anything about your past,” Peter jokes. “I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to learn about you through Rhodey.”

Tony snorts. “He wouldn’t tell the stories right. Always saying I constantly got into trouble and whatnot.”

That gets Peter’s full attention. “You? A troublemaker? I highly doubt that.”

“No seriously, I was. I was about fifteen when I got into MIT. Which doesn't really happen unless you're a genius level intellect. Most people went to college about seventeen to twenty. Some older, of course, but mostly young adults.” He chuckles. “Anyway, Rhodey and I got assigned to live in the same dorm. And I was one of those kids that thought they were the shit. So… you know, I rebelled a lot, got in a lot of trouble. The only thing preventing me from getting kicked out was my grades.”

Peter laughs. “I can’t picture you doing any of that.”

Shrugging, Tony closes the desk drawer. “Yeah, well… time changes a person.”

Peter sighs and throws down the shirt he was holding. He can’t find anything worth grabbing anyway. “Let’s get going.”

As they exit the room, something at the end of the hall catches Peter’s eye. It looks to be an old camera left abandoned, and he can’t help but feel intrigued. Just as he grabs it, the floor under him creaks ominously. He finds himself frozen in place, Tony’s shouting sounding muted. When he finally gets back into his body, he’s staring at a wide eyed Tony.

“Tony,” is all he says before the floor collapses under him.

He lands on the floor hard, the wind getting knocked out of him and making it hard to breathe. When he finally gets his barings, the air is thick with spores. There’s roaring coming from close by. A bloater’s roar sounding loud in his ears over the sounding of his racing heart. The clickers on the floor are going wild, and he quickly hides behind a desk.

Peter nearly jumps out of his skin when there’s a hand on his shoulder. It’s just Tony, and thankfully he has a gas mask on. There’s a shake in his hands that Peter doesn’t miss, and suddenly Peter’s reminded his fall was the same exact way that Pepper was killed all those months ago. He just got lucky.

“Holy shit,” Tony says, giving him a quick once over. It’s hard to see through the fog of spores, but he makes do. “Holy shit. Are you alright?”

“I’m shaken, but I’m alright.” He lets out a shaky breath. “Let’s get out of here and to the science building, please.”

The clickers all migrate around where the crash happened. Tony throws a molotov cocktail of his own at the group and Peter watches in fascination as they’re all attracted to the sound and burned up. His heart’s in his throat when the clickers aren’t the only ones heading towards the sound.

With the bloater distracted, they slip by and head towards the nearby door. They have to shove something out of the way, but quickly reblock it when they hear the bloater come screaming their way.

“Holy shit,” Peter says, laughing in disbelief.

Tony waits until they’re back outside before removing his mask. Peter’s about to comment on the whole thing when Tony’s suddenly inspecting his face, turning it slightly to the right.

“You got scratched during the fall,” he says, running his finger along the underside of the cut. It’s hard to guess how deep it is, but there’s a look on Tony’s face that makes him feel guilty.

“Guess it’s a good thing I’m immune,” he weakly jokes, the guilt only intensifying when Tony’s face falls and he drops his hand. “Tony, I’m—”

“Let’s just get to the science building,” Tony says, voice oddly calm. Peter tries to swallow around the lump in his throat. “The cut isn’t that bad, so you shouldn’t have to worry. We should still clean it at some point soon so it doesn’t get infected.”

“Okay,” Peter replies quietly, feeling defeated as he’s climbs back on the horse.

The science building has large windows that span most of the length of the wall. _ ‘Rhodey was right in saying it looked like a giant mirror,’ _ Peter thinks. Sun is reflecting harshly off of it during this time of day, and Peter has to squint until they’ve gotten close enough that it isn’t blaring right into their eyes.

“It’s really quiet,” he comments, looking around. “Shouldn’t we have seen somebody by now?”

There’s large blockages around the front of the building that their horse easily jumps over. Boards and broken bricks lay everywhere like discarded trash. It almost appears to be a broken barrier, purposely destroyed in order to get past.

“That can’t be good,” Tony mutters, and Peter is close enough to him to hear it even if he suspects he wasn’t supposed to.

“How do we get in?” Peter asks. “The door’s blocked shut, and I doubt we’ll be able to get through it.”

“We’ll have to find a way around.”

They move towards a nearby gate where Tony hops off of the horse. Peter gently directs the horse to stand on the sidewalk instead of in front of said gate and slips off as well. Tony’s already tugging on the gate, but it refuses to budge.

“It’s rusted shut,” Tony says, trying to look for a way around the mess. He looks up and spots an opening in the building. “There. We can get in up there and look around.”

Peter still has a funny feeling about the entire thing. It’s strange they haven’t come across any Fireflies yet, and the fear of failure sits heavily in his stomach. He helps Tony with finding something to open the gate and he cuts his hand on the garbage container they’re pushing. It breaks open the gate, much to Peter’s amusement.

After cleaning both of Peter’s cuts, they make their way up to the hole in the wall and climb into to empty labs. Drawers are taken out of their places, cupboards opened and the contents scattered. There are closets with molded lab coats that have faded over time to a pale grey. The disarray of the entire place should’ve been a big indicator of what else they would find, but they were determined to find something while there.

“Hello?” Peter calls out, kicking a random knocked over bin. “Any Fireflies here? Cure for mankind over here!”

Tony mutters something behind him, but Peter ignores it in favor of walking out onto the small outside path. It faces a small courtyard with a large maple tree in the middle of it. Broken building materials lay scattered along the ground, and it makes Peter wonder if they were working on something before the infection, or if it was from the building falling apart over time.

“How do you think they’ll do it?” Peter asks, leaning against the handrail. He’s watching a couple leaves fall off the tree, adding to the already growing pile of orange, red, and brown.

“Might take your blood. Run tests,” Tony says, putting a hand on the railing next to him. He doesn’t lean on it like Peter does. “Who knows what they’ll do.”

“Do you think it’ll hurt?” Peter continues, staring up at Tony. “Like, not necessarily the needles itself, but taking samples.”

Tony shrugs. “Depends on what they’ll do, I guess.”

Peter watches the leaves for another moment before standing up. Tony chooses to follow behind Peter here, for whatever reason. He isn’t questioning it, but he knows Tony will be there in case anything happens.

Walking into the next room doesn’t result in anything, either. They do, however, find a cart of medical equipment left abandoned in front of the stairwell, but it isn’t any help.

“Looks like they were in a rush to get some place,” Tony says, reading over the list. “I’ve got an idea as to why, but I’m hoping it’s not true.”

“Yeah, me too.” Peter sighs and kicks at the cart. He goes to add something else, but there’s a loud banging from the floor above them. The two of them make eye contact before Peter’s hurrying up the stairs, Tony on his heels and trying to slow him down.

On the other side of the door reveals to be three orange monkeys, and they quickly dart away when the two enter the room. Peter lets out a disbelieving laugh and sits in the office chair nearby.

“Maybe in all their research, they turned into fucking monkeys,” he says, twirling around in the seat. “There’s no one here, Tony. Not a single goddamn Firefly.”

“Well, let’s just… keep looking,” Tony says, trying to sound optimistic.

“What are we looking for?” Peter asks, stopping his spinning and laying his head back to stare up at the ceiling. “Because you and I both know that whatever chased them out had to do with the infection. There’s infected in the dorms, and that can’t be a coincidence. Especially with that bloater.” He sighs again. “Your buddy Rhodey is a little behind on the information.”

“Well it’s been years since he was a Firefly, it makes sense.” Tony’s rummaging through some paperwork on one of the lab tables as he talks. “And based on these notes, they kept anything they were testing with on a tight leash.”

He goes quiet, and Peter has to sit up to see what’s going on. There’s a recorder in Tony’s hands and he quickly presses play in hopes of getting some answers. The Firefly recording goes on about testing on the monkeys before suddenly breaking off.

“They bit him,” Peter says at the same time as the Firefly says as much. “The monkeys are infected.”

“Were, most likely,” Tony agrees, tossing it back down. “The infected ones must’ve still been put down after biting him. That explains the infected in the dorms.”

“But that also means it’s been at least ten years since they were here.” Peter stands up and walks over to Tony. “That would also explain the hurried getaway. They wanted to get away from here before more people got infected.” He looks at Tony a moment before asking softly, “What do we do now?”

Tony shakes his head, backing away from the table. “C’mon, let’s keep looking. They had to have left some sort of recording about where they went.”

The rest of the floor was as unsuccessful as the others, but there was a barred off office that Tony pushed his way into. A corpse was sitting in the chair there, gun dropped onto the floor and dried blood still on the wall on the other side of where the gunshot hole in its head was. Peter scrunches his nose at the sight, but doesn’t comment on it. Instead, he starts going through some of the medical records in there to see what they had accomplished before they left.

Tony finds another recording in the man’s other hand and has little difficulty getting out of his grip. Peter only half listens to it as Tony flips through the audio for anything that would be helpful.

_“...if you’re looking for the Fireflies, they’ve all left,”_ comes from the recorder, catching Peter’s attention enough to look up. _“They’ve all gone to St. Mary’s hospital in Salt Lake City.”_

“Do you know where that is?” Peter asks, tossing the medical records aside as he stands up. “Is it far?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know where it’s at. It’s not a short walk by any means, but it shouldn’t be too bad by horse.” Tony tosses the recorder back onto the table.

Suddenly, there’s yelling coming from somewhere below, and they both look down to see men walking around with guns. A light shines up at them and Peter only manages to get out “Fireflies?” before Tony’s pulling him down just before shots ring out.

Getting out of there proves to be a challenge. Peter’s practiced a lot in any spare time with Tony, so he wastes no time in splitting up to cover more ground. Shots ring out from all around them, more and more hunters successfully falling. The cut in his hand is roaring in pain from the use, but Peter shoves it down and continues shooting. Once he’s out of bullets, he makes sure to quickly search the dead bodies for more, even putting some away to give to Tony later.

He’s made it to the floor below when he hears shouting coming from the pathway outside. Hurrying out, he’s met with the sight of Tony struggling against a hunter. Tony’s pinned to the handrail, the hunter choking him and fighting against Tony’s wildly moving fists.

Peter watches in horror as the handrail under Tony gives way and they’re suddenly falling. The hunter doesn’t make it to the ground alive, but Tony lands right on a metal pole. It goes right through his stomach and he makes a sound of pain as he lands. There’s a rope that fell down during the scuffle, and Peter slinks down it to Tony.

“Holy shit,” Peter says, staring at all the blood that’s soaking Tony’s shirt and jacket. There’s banging on the door, and Peter’s hands hover over Tony, unsure of what to do.

More hunters burst through, and both Peter and an injured Tony kill them before Peter’s back to his hovering. His mouth keeps opening and closing, sure he’s looking like a fish in that moment as he tries figuring out what he should do.

“I need you to pull,” Tony says through clenched teeth. He looks more in pain than Peter’s ever seen him.

Grabbing one of Tony’s hands, he braces himself as he pulls Tony up and off the pole. Tony cries out in pain and clutches his abdomen once he’s mostly standing upright. Peter’s hands are shaky violently as he moves Tony’s hands away to inspect the wound. There’s blood everywhere and it isn’t long before Peter’s hands are coated.

“Let’s get out of here first,” Tony tells him, taking a shaky step forward. He waves Peter off when the teen tries to help him move.

“I’ll check it out first,” he says, heading towards the open door and peeking at both ends of the hallway. “Okay, it’s clear this way.”

Leading Tony out like this is something out of Peter’s nightmares. He’s moving slow and wincing in pain every so often, though he tries to hide it for Peter’s sake. At one point, he collapses at the bottom of the stairs in the front hall, and Peter has to quickly shoot the men coming for them before helping Tony up.

Even though Peter knows he doesn’t want to, Tony ends up leaning a lot of his weight onto Peter as they stumble the rest of the way. Peter leaves him sitting on the front steps while he quickly grabs the horse.

“Do you need help up?” he asks Tony, who shakes his head at the question. Once Tony’s safely up, Peter climbs up himself and they’re off. At a safe distance away, Peter looks over his shoulder and lets out a breath. “I think we’re safe.”

Tony goes slack in front of him, and Peter barely manages to move in time for the older to fall off the horse. He lets out a grunt of pain, but it’s the only sound he makes as he lays there. Snow is starting to come down around them, and Peter’s furiously trying to blink the tears out of his eyes.

“Tony! Tony, please open your eyes,” he sobs out. “You need to tell me what to do, Tony. I can’t do this without you. Tony!”


	6. winter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> implied mentions of cannibalism. had zero interest in going into detail about, so it shouldnt be too bad, i dont think

With winter brings bitter cold wind and food becoming scarce. It’s Peter’s least favorite time of year, and while he’s never been the best hunter, he knows the basics of skinning animals to cook over a fire. The main issue is finding a big enough kill for them to eat off of.

Bow in hand with an arrow ready, Peter slinks quietly through the woods. The jacket he found a few weeks prior in an old mall he picked through isn’t very thick. He paired a sweater underneath it, and it keeps him warm enough during the colder months. There’s a shake in his hands that he isn’t entirely sure is just from the cold.

He spots a rabbit leaving its hole and shoots it quickly. Letting out a relieved breath when the arrow hits the target, he walks over to retrieve it. “This won’t last long,” he mutters to himself, taking the arrow out of the animal and tying the dead rabbit to the saddle of the horse.

As he does so, he spots something out of the corner of his eye. When he turns his head, he spots a grazing deer nearby. It’s large, with antlers spread out like twisted fingers out of its head. It’s enough meat to feed two for at least a few days; longer if rationed right.

Peter quickly ties up the horse to a tree. “You’ll just startle it,” he tells the creature, gently scratching its muzzle before sneaking closer to the deer.

He aims quickly and lands the first shot in the meat of its shoulder. It yowls in pain before taking off in a random direction. Peter curses under his breath before following the trail of blood that it left behind.

The woods grow thicker the farther he strays from where he left the horse. For a moment, he panics that he’s lost his way. All the trees are bare of leaves and all look the same amongst the scattering of rocks. The only reason he knows he isn’t going in circles is the blood trail and the footprints he leaves behind in the snow.

He has to shoot the deer once more before he follows the trail to a strange scattering of old buildings. The first building he enters is a mostly empty cabin made of a skeleton of lumper barely holding it up. Not bothering to try and find anything of use in the meager leftovers of building, Peter continues forward. On the other side, he spots the deer lying dead in the middle of the field.

After taking the arrows out of the deer’s corpse, Peter hovers over hit a moment, trying to figure out how he’s going to drag back such large game back to the house he’s hiding out the winter in. Suddenly, there’s the sound of a branch cracking from near one of the buildings, and he wastes no time in bringing up his bow and aiming the arrow at the sound.

“Who’s there?” he demands, glad that his hands stopped shaking when he needed them to.

Two older men come out of where they’re hiding. They both look no older than thirty-five, guns hanging over their shoulders rather than in their hands. The one in front holds his hands up, palms facing forward in a sign of peace. “We mean no harm,” he says. “We just came this way in search of food.” He then nods towards the deer. “Great game you’ve got there. I know of a lot of women and children that could feed.”

“Yeah, well. Children are hungry over here, too,” he says, his aim never wavering. “Don’t step any closer or I’ll put one right between your eyes. Same for your pal over there, as well.”

The one that spoke chuckles softly. “My name’s Quentin. This pal of mine is Russell. Is there, by any chance, anything you’re willing to trade for some of that meat? Clothes, weapons, ammo?”

“Medicine,” Peter answers quickly. “Do you have any antibiotics?”

Quentin and Russell exchange a look. “We do,” Quentin says slowly. “Back at the camp, we can—”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Peter interrupts. He swallows thickly. “One of you can go get it and bring it back. Once I have what I need, the deer is yours.”

Quentin nods. “Go get a bottle of penicillin and a syringe,” he instructs Russell. “And hurry, please.”

Russell nods, giving Peter one more look before heading off to do as instructed. The wind around the two left there picks up a little, chilling Peter further, though he tries not to let it show. “I’ll take that rifle, too,” he says after a moment.

Quentin smirks before slipping the rifle off his shoulder and setting it in the ground between the two. Peter keeps an arrow armed at him while grabbing the rifle. He quickly puts both in his backpack before checking that the rifle’s loaded and keeping it aimed at Quentin.

“Do you mind if we head inside while we wait? With the storm picking up, it’d be a lot better to get out of the wind,” Quentin suggests.

Peter swallows thickly again and gestures at the deer with the gun. “Bring him with.”

Quentin drags the dead deer to a nearby building and lays it in a far corner. Peter doesn’t stray too close to the strange man while he builds a small fire to keep them warm. He only lowers his gun when the fire has a good flame going, and he’s too cold to keep avoiding getting close to get warm.

Neither of them say anything a moment, too busy trying to warm themselves up. Warmth slowly seeps back into Peter’s fingers, and he clenches them a moment before holding them close to the flame, letting out a soft sigh in relief.

“What’s your name?” Quentin asks after a moment, clearly trying to make conversation.

Peter can’t help but snort, still looking down at the flame. “Why do you want to know?”

“You look a little young to be out on your own,” he continues, ignoring Peter’s question. “Makes me wonder… who the medicine is for. They obviously mean quite a bit to you.”

“He does,” Peter says quickly. “But you don’t need to know anything else. We’re only making a simple trade.”

Quentin chuckles again, and it sounds off to Peter’s ears and sets him on edge. “You know the saying: curiosity killed the cat.”

“Satisfaction brought him back,” Peter finishes without thinking. May said that saying a lot, but he never thought twice about it. Hearing it coming from Quentin feels wrong.

Quentin adds another twig to the fire. He’s about to ask another question when there’s screaming coming from nearby. Peter’s instantly on his feet, rifle in his hands. There’s a clicker that stumbles in through the open door, and Peter freezes when he sees it. A shot rings out, and it crumbles to the floor.

“You had another gun?” Peter asks in shock when he sees Quentin aiming a pistol at the dead infected.

“I’d like my rifle back,” he says instead.

“Uh-uh. You have your pistol,” Peter denies, lifting his gun up.

Quentin huffs out a laugh before moving to shut the door up. He then moves to cover the deer with a tarp left in the building. “They must’ve followed the scent of him,” he says. “I don’t know how many are out there.”

“Guess we’ll find out,” Peter says, keeping his aim steady. Now that his hands are warmer, the shake isn’t as bad. Plus knowing there’s medicine on the way gives him a peace of mind he didn’t know he needed.

Shaking out his thoughts, Peter keeps an eye on the boarded up windows, and shoots any infected that try breaking in. Quentin stays by him while they struggle to hold off the infected from entering. It makes Peter regret not only shooting the deer, but also agreeing to do a trade with Quentin. Though, if he had to drag this deer all the way back, he would’ve had to fight them off by himself.

Once they’re done, Peter lets out a breath of relief. He stares out of the window in amazement. There were dozens of dead infected laying around the shack they were in, and no other sounds that there were more coming. Peter lets out a laugh of disbelief.

“I can’t believe we did it,” he admits, shooting Quentin a smile. “They’re all dead.”

“I wonder where they all came from,” Quentin wonders aloud, standing next to Peter to look out the window. “There aren’t many places nearby to hold that many. The only one I know if the camp I come from.” He squeezes Peter’s shoulder, and it takes everything in him not to flinch away. “Come on, let’s get back to the fire.”

Quentin’s kept the door to the shack closed, but uncovers the deer to make sure it’s still in one piece. After, he starts the fire back up, and keeps a stick on hand to poke at it and keep it going. Peter’s once again warming his hands up by the fire, though he sets the rifle off to the side. While he’s still unsure of Quentin, the elder has yet to make any moves on his life, so Peter gives him the benefit of the doubt for the time being.

“You know…” Quentin suddenly speaks up. “Speaking of nearby places, I sent some of our men to a nearby town, about a few miles from here. With winter coming on so strong this year, I figured going a bit further for food wouldn’t hurt.” He chuckles softly. “Only… a few of the group came back, you know. Said something about a crazy duo killing most of them there. A, uh… crazy man and a young boy traveling together.”

Peter’s quickly on his feet, pointing the gun at Quentin.

“I believe everything happens for a reason, you see,” he continues on, like he isn’t at all affected by the gun pointed at his face. “Kinda like destiny.” Quentin’s gaze then flickers up. “Put the gun down, Russell.”

Peter swings the gun towards the direction of the now open door. He curses himself for being so paranoid that he missed the sound of it being opened. There’s a gun aimed at him, and the man doesn’t look too happy at being told to stand down.

“The others won’t like this,” Russell finally says, hand dropping down and tossing the medicine onto the ground in front of Peter.

Peter’s quick to grab it, but he doesn’t keep his eyes off Russell. He doesn’t trust either of them, but at least Quentin hasn’t made any moves to kill him yet. Russell seems more trigger happy of the two.

“Let me worry about that,” Quentin says easily, going back to tending to the fire.

Peter and Russell maintain eye contact as Peter slips closer to the door. Russell finally moves out of the way, and Peter slips out. As soon as he’s outside, he’s booking it in the direction he came from, not looking back once.

It takes some time before he finds the horse again, and quickly climbs on. It’s then that he spares a look back towards where the men are before urging his horse to run towards the neighborhood he’s hold up in.

There’s a house on the end of the street that has a basement that can be accessed from the outside by a garage door in the back. Peter slides off the horse and opens the garage door and leads the horse in before quietly closing it. After setting some fruit he found elsewhere in the house in a spot for the horse to nibble on, he takes off the rabbit from earlier and moves further into the house.

In a connecting room in the basement, Tony lays on an old mattress that Peter had dragged down here. He’s covered up with a thick blanket, but he’s still shivering. “Hey, Tony,” he greets, his voice quiet. Ever-so-gently, he pushes down the quilt and lifts up Tony’s jacket.

The makeshift gauze that Peter’s made to cover the injury is bloody, but thankfully not enough to be a huge concern. He gently peels it away to look at the stitches he’s made to it, letting out a soft sigh when he sees they’re still in place.

“I got ahold of some medicine, though you’d probably scold me for how I got it,” Peter says in an attempt at humor. Tony doesn’t reply, and Peter does his best not to let any hurt show. Carefully drawing some of the penicillin into the syringe, Peter looks for a good place to insert it. After he does, he pricks the needle into Tony’s skin, feeling guilty when Tony tenses up under his hands. “Sorry,” he murmurs, injecting it into the man. “There. That should help as your wound heals.”

Peter quickly covers Tony back up. After making sure Tony is settled, he grabs the rabbit and heads upstairs towards the kitchen. None of the stuff in there works, but Peter likes using the counter space to skin the rabbit. Plus, seeing Tony in the state he’s in always leaves a guilty feeling settle heavily in his stomach.

Keeping his hands busy proves to be a good way to keep his mind off the injured man downstairs. With other canned vegetables and ingredients he found in a pantry a few houses down, he makes a stew over a small fire he keeps contained in one area. He’s sure it isn’t the best stew out there, but he knows from experience it will keep them full for the rest of the night.

He divides it evenly between two bowls and takes them back downstairs to the basement. Tony still has his eyes closed, but cracks one open when Peter comes back with the smell of food.

“It isn’t much, but I made rabbit stew,” Peter says, sitting down on the ground next to the mattress. He sets the bowls down before putting Tony’s backpack under his head to prop him up a little. Tony only minorly groans in the movement. “C’mon, you need food to heal.”

Feeding Tony food isn’t something Peter thought he would do, but here he is. Tony’s been too out of it to complain about the treatment, but opens his mouth whenever Peter offers a spoonful of it. He only gets through half of it before he’s out again. Peter gently moves his backpack back out of the way and adjusts Tony to lay more comfortably.

Peter doesn’t waste any time after that in eating his own portion of food. It fills his stomach and he sets Tony’s bowl to the side for him to finish eating later when he’s awake again. Hoping the medicine will do the trick, Peter lays on the ground next to the mattress and uses his own backpack as a pillow. With one last glance at Tony, Peter soon falls fast asleep.

It’s brighter out when Peter’s awoken the next day. Light streams in through the small window, almost far enough into the day that it’s close to shining right on his face. Peter lays there for another moment, eyelids heavy as he nearly falls back asleep. He’s awoken with a startle when he hears yelling from nearby outside.

More awake now, Peter stumbles up and climbs onto a crate to peek through the window. He curses when he spots a bunch of men staring at the ground and looking around.

“What’s so special about this damn kid?” he barely hears one of them ask.

“Fuck knows what Quentin wants with him. Let’s just bring him back and worry about that later,” another answers.

Peter steps down from the crate and looks down at Tony. “I need to lead them away,” he says to the air. He knows Tony won’t reply, and is likely still asleep, but it feels nice to imagine he’s talking to the older man.

He grabs his backpack and slips it on. After one more glance at Tony, he slips into the next room where the horse is waiting for him. Repeating the process of opening and closing the garage door quietly, Peter gets onto the horse and starts moving forward.

Peter’s nearly passed the group when one of the men he didn’t see grabs ahold of his leg. “I found him!” he yells out, struggling to climb onto the horse alongside Peter.

“Get off!” Peter yelled, taking his pocket knife out. He jammed it into the guy’s shoulder and kicked him off. Knife still in hand, Peter runs off, dodging every bullet shot his way, or kicking every man who tries jumping onto his horse.

“Get the horse! Get the fucking horse!” one yells out, making Peter’s blood freeze. He just needs to make it a little further…

The horse suddenly crumbles under him, sending them both falling down a nearby hill. Peter cries out in pain when he lands on his leg funny before going rolling. When he finally stops, he looks up to see that the horse isn’t moving, and there’s a large pile of blood surrounding it. “No,” he whispers. He reaches towards it when the men are shouting out again, trying to find him.

It takes some limping, but he finally makes it into a nearby cabin. His ankle’s throbbing, but after a quick check, he’s thankful to find that it at least isn’t broken. Luckily, the men haven’t followed him into the cabin, but it’s only a matter of time before they find him. Clothes spill out of a nearby dresser, and he crawls over to it and digs around for a bit. He finds an old shirt that’s big enough to use and uses it as a wrap for his ankle.

Walking is a slight chore, but he manages better with his ankle wrapped than he did before. His heartbeat is loud in his ears as he quietly moves forward into the front part of the cabin. The bow he has stashed in his backpack is thankfully still in one piece, and he has it out and at the ready.

Peeking around the corner of the hallway, Peter’s met with the sight of two men looting around in the living room. He waits until one has his back turned before aiming an arrow at the other and silently taking him out. When the body hits the floor, the other is alerted and Peter quickly takes him out as well before he can alert anybody else.

Quickly retrieving the arrows, Peter keeps an eye on the window at all times. He makes a quick sweep of the house for anything else that can be useful before making his way outside.

It doesn’t prove to be much better.

There are men walking around the small courtyard of cabins he’s in. One of the men is looking through the small fishing shop on the shore, another is scoping the bathrooms, and two are on a small lookout. There’s a path connected to the lookout, and Peter only hopes it leads to a way out. He only needs to get passed the other hunters first.

Making sure to keep his bow ready at all times, Peter uses his size to his advantage. He sneaks around them by using the surrounding buildings or other leftover stuff from the time before the infection. He’s nearly through when he’s spotted.

“Over there!”

Peter quickly curses and dives into the beach’s food shack and hides under the counter. Hunters yell out around him, and he curses before realising he also has his gun. Tucking away his bow back into his backpack, he slowly pulls his gun back out and holds it between his shaking hands.

“C’mon, Peter, you can do this,” he whispers to himself.

He slowly takes a peek over the counter, making sure to keep mostly out of sight. The hunters are surrounding the building he’s in, but if he makes it past, he has a clear shot to the pathway out. Bracing himself, Peter hopes his ankle doesn’t fail him as he runs out of the door and straight towards the path.

Bullets fly out everywhere, and breathing is coming in rough pants, but he’s sprinting as fast as he can away. The hunters are chasing him, still shooting at him in their desperation to bring him into their camp. Peter has no interest in seeing Quentin again, and heads towards a large nearby lodge.

Peter doesn’t stop moving until he hides under a table in the dining room of the lodge. It’s in the far corner, and nobody can sneak up on him as he waits for the men to pass. He’s not even sure he’s breathing until he knows for sure they’re gone. His ankle’s throbbing in pain from all the running, and he checks it once more to make sure it isn’t broken.

“Goddammit,” he mutters, trying to think of a way out without being spotted. Without going back out the same way, he’s not sure of a good exit plan. Considering what he had to deal with on the way here, it’s likely only gotten worse since he passed through. They’re desperate to find him, and while he doesn’t fully understand why, he’s no closer to wanting to find out.

There’s a window nearby that he peeks out of, and he doesn’t see any hunters around the lodge through it. It’s eerily silent around him now, and he doesn’t like it. He moves to another window and spots a large hill with a path through the woods on the other side. Even if it isn’t a direct way back, being in the dense trees might prove to work in his favor.

“I just hope I don’t run into anybody crossing it,” he says softly, staring at it for a bit longer to figure out a plan. He’s favoring his left leg, right leg still wrapped up tightly. “Ankle don’t fail me now.”

Gun still out and ready, Peter makes his way to the front door. It’s the closest one for a straight shot to the hiking path. There’s stuff in the way, and he has no bang it open to get through. Making a lot of noise isn’t ideal, but he’s hopefully fast enough that it shouldn’t make too big of a deal.

As soon as he gets the door open, however, Quentin is bursting through it. He doesn’t look pleased, but it takes him no time at all to get an arm around Peter’s neck. Peter grabs his pocket knife and tries stabbing him, but he doesn’t manage before everything goes black.

The ground under him is hard enough to fool him into thinking he’s going to wake up in the house laying next to Tony. Reality isn’t as kind, though, because when he opens his eyes, he’s in some sort of butcher’s room. There’s a man already in there, cutting away at something that Peter can’t see. Though when he suddenly chops something and it falls to the floor, Peter reels back at seeing it’s a human hand.

The man must hear Peter moving around because he turns his head and Peter meets the annoyed eyes of Russell. He then sets the butcher’s knife down and heads out, likely to let Quentin know he’s awake. The minute he’s out of the room, Peter’s scrambling up and yanking on the door of the small cell he’s been put in, but it won’t budge.

“Goddammit,” he growls, kicking it in frustration. His mind is instantly going to Tony, and he hopes with everything in him that the man isn’t going out of his mind with worry.

Quentin enters the room then, carrying a tray with a bowl and a glass of what Peter hopes to be water in it. He sets it on the ground in front of the jail door and slides it underneath.

“What is it?” he asks doubtfully.

“Deer,” Quentin answers, smiling a little as he leans against the table where Russell was just cutting on. He doesn’t blink at the sight of the corpse that’s on the table behind him.

“With some human helping on the side?” Peter drawls sarcastically. He eyes the tray again. It smells delicious, and he can feel his stomach growling at the sight. Even though he ate before he left the house, the smell of food is tempting him.

“No, just the deer.”

Peter eyes him for a minute, and Quentin maintains eye contact. Peter’s stomach growls again, loud enough for the other man to hear it this time around. He smirks successfully at it.

“You’re a fucking animal,” is all Peter says before dropping down onto his knees to start eating from the bowl. The meat, thankfully, tastes like it’s deer. Though there’s still suspicion going through Peter’s mind at it, he’s sticking with not really wanting to know the answer.

“You’re awfully quick to judge, you know that?” Quentin comments. He chuckles a little, but it sounds a bit dark. Peter slowly takes a drink of the water while still keeping an eye on him. “You and that, uh… partner of yours have killed a lot of my men. It’s all survival, isn’t it?”

The food suddenly tastes foul in Peter’s mouth and shoves the tray out of his jail and towards Quentin. He’s only successful in spilling the water onto his boots. “They’re not the same thing,” he snarls.

Quentin’s calm as he picks up the tray and sets it on the table behind him. Whatever he fed Peter rolls in his stomach uncomfortably. “I don’t see much of a difference, to be honest,” he says in reply. His demeanour hasn't changed at all despite Peter’s reactions. “You see, in the world we live in, we have to do everything we can to survive. Sacrifice of the few to save the many, and all that.”

Peter lets out a shaky breath as he stands up. “It’s practically night and day,” he argues. “We kill because it’s kill or be killed. No sacrifice necessary to help others. Surely you understand that much.”

Quentin smirks, and it sends a shiver down Peter’s spine. “No, I agree. But… you have to understand there are a lot of people who depend on me to feed them.” He stalks closer to the jail door. “I have to feed them.”

Swallowing thickly, Peter does his best not to back away in fear. Instead, he steels himself and walks closer as well, trying to appear taller as he puts his hands on the bars of the door. “Is that why I’m here, then?” he asks, thankful that his voice at least isn’t shaking. “To cut me up into tiny little pieces?”

“No, no,” Quentin denies. His smirk turns more sinister. “You’re special, you see. So young, full of potential. You’d be a perfect candidate. I’d train you myself.” He puts a hand over one of Peter’s, and Peter feels his stomach drop out of his body.

“Oh,” he says before plastering on a sweet smile. It’s as fake as it feels as he puts his other hand on top of Quentin’s. Quentin relaxes as it looks like Peter’s finally giving in. However, Peter’s smile drops and he’s pulling Quentin’s finger back until he hears a snap. He then pushes an arm between the bars of the door to grab the keyring hanging off of Quentin’s belt.

The moment his fingers close around it, Quentin’s pulling away fast enough that Peter’s slammed right into the jail door. The rusted bars don’t give, and after a few times of this, Peter’s forced to let go. He’s fairly sure his nose is broken as he stumbles back, hand on his nose as blood drips down his face.

“You stupid kid,” Quentin says angrily. “I was trying to protect you! What am I supposed to tell them now?!”

“Peter,” the teen gets out. “Tell them that Peter is the kid who broke your fucking finger.”

Quentin chuckles darkly once more, cradling his hand in his other. “Peter,” he says, like he’s testing out the name. It sounds foul coming from him, and Peter hates how it sounds. “See you in the morning, Peter.”

Quentin leaves the room and Peter’s brave face quickly falls as he’s once more checking his nose. It’s just bloody, bordering on broken. Other than having to wipe away the blood with his sleeve, he’s physically okay. The food still churns in his stomach and he forces himself not to throw it back up. As much as he hates to admit it, he needs the strength to get through whatever Quentin has planned for him.

**~*~**

Tony’s eyes snap open, and breathing becomes difficult for a moment as he lays there trying to take in his surroundings. There’s a bowl laying nearby with contents likely having long grown cold. In the back of his mind, he can remember fuzzy details of Peter talking about making rabbit stew and a sharp stab near his injury.

Before he does anything else, he eats the last of the cold stew before looking around. “Peter?” he calls out when he doesn’t hear anything but the wind roaring outside.

Standing up is almost too painful to endure, but he pushes through regardless. The house he finds himself standing in is far too quiet to be housing another human in it, and that instantly sets Tony on edge. Though his side is hurts, it’s not as bad as it did when he was first healing from it. Whatever Peter gave him did the trick, and now he’s able to tolerate it a lot better as he moves.

He’s antsy, so he makes quick work of searching the house for any signs of Peter. “Where are you?” he calls out, feeling more panicked when there’s no indication he’s been there in a while. The area in the kitchen where he made food has long grown cold, and he can’t find the horse.

Stepping out of the house, he has to brace himself against the wind. With how the wind is picking up and blowing snow around everywhere, he has a sinking suspicion there’s a snowstorm on its way. Tony needs to find Peter before it’s too late.

There’s a group of hunters clustered around the end of the street that have yet to spot them. They’re all lounging around, and it makes Tony wonder if they want to be there at all, or are just a customary line of defense. Using the blowing snow to his advantage, Tony stays low and advances on them. One of them spots him when he gets closer to the group.

“Oh, fuck!” he shouts, shooting at Tony and barely misses as Tony dodges behind a car on the street.

They keep shooting at him, but are slowly moving backwards, as well. Tony kills a couple of them before having to chase them down the rest of the street. As he’s trying to cut through an area to look for them again, he’s ambushed by the last two.

One’s holding onto him while the other gets closer with a large knife. Tony throws his head backwards and knocks the guy holding him out before kicking at the other and knocking the knife out of his hand. He punches him a couple times until the guy is loose limbed enough that Tony can drag both of them into a nearby house.

Tony ties the unconscious one to the old radiator in the house, and ties the other one in a chair from the dining room. As soon as the one in the chair starts becoming more alert, Tony wastes no time in punching on him.

“Where is Peter?” he snarls out, hitting the man again when it results in no answers.

“Fuck you. I ain’t telling you shit,” he says, spitting out blood. His friend stirs behind him and instantly starts pulling on his ties.

“What the hell?” he asks before seeing Tony and the other hunter. “What the fuck do you want, man?”

“Shut up, Charlie,” the first one hisses. “I got this.”

Tony smirks. “Oh, you do, don’t you?” He grabs the knife they were going to stab him with from earlier and plunges it right into the man’s knee. Tony grabs another chair and puts it right in front of the other. “Tell me what I need to know or I’ll pop your goddamn knee off.”

The man’s cringing in pain, but spits more blood at Tony. He screams when Tony just twists the knife. “Fuck.” He pants for a minute. “He’s Quentin’s newest pet. Quentin’s got him locked up somewhere in town. I swear that’s all I know.”

Tony shoves the knife into the hunter’s mouth, the blade sticking out towards him. He pulls out a map and sticks it in front of the hunter’s face. “Mark it on the map where Quentin’s got him. And it better be the same exact location your friend points to.”

Though Tony knows the hunter doesn’t want to give away the location, he still draws a messy ‘x’ on the map using the knife and his own blood. He then spits it out onto the ground. “There, I swear.”

Tony folds up the map and tucks it into an inside pocket of his jacket. He then stands up and breaks the man’s neck, letting the chair drop to the floor. Facing the other man, he picks up a large pipe off the floor.

“He told you what he wanted,” Charlie says quickly, trying to back away. “I ain’t telling you anything.”

“That’s alright,” he says calmly. “I believe him.” He swings the pipe at Charlie.

**~*~**

  
  


Peter wakes again once more on the cold concrete floor. The blood on his face is dry and cakey, making him cringe and realise he had nothing to wipe it off with. He isn’t given much time to think about it before Quentin and Russell are bursting through the door. Quentin opens the jail and Peter fights against their hands as both men grab one of his arms and start dragging him out.

“Fuck you,” he growls out before biting Quentin’s arm almost to the point of drawing blood. Quentin backhands him and both adults lay him out on the table. Quentin’s arm is already going back, cleaver in hand, when Peter blurts out, “I’m infected!”

They both pause, and it gives Peter a moment to breathe. Quentin’s narrowing his eyes. “What?”

“I’m infected,” he repeats, eyes flickering down to where he bit Quentin. “And now you are, too.” Peter swallows thickly. “It’s on my arm, check for yourself.”

“Alright, I’ll let you play your little game.” Quentin slams the cleaver into the table near Peter’s head, making him flinch. He rolls Peter’s sleeve up and both men stare at the bite mark in Peter’s arm.

“What were you saying before?” Peter asks with a smirk. “Everything happens for a reason?”

“What the hell is that?” Russell demands.

“He would’ve turned by now,” Quentin snaps, though Peter catches his eyes flickering down to his own bite mark.

“It looks pretty fucking real to me, Quentin.”

While they bicker, Peter tears his arm out of Russell’s hold and grabs ahold of the meat cleaver. Without blinking, he takes it and throws his arm at Russell, hitting him right in the neck. Peter then gets his arm out of Quentin’s hold and jumps off the table, running into the next room.

Quentin shoots at him, and Peter spots his pocket knife on a nearby shelf. Grabbing it, he dodges another bullet and hops out of a nearby window and into the snowstorm that’s blowing over them.

“Think you can hide from me?” Quentin asks into the wind. It carries his voice over it, making him sound louder. “This is my town, boy. There’s nowhere you can hide where I can’t find you!”

Peter ducks into a nearby store, closing and blocking the door. He sits down on the ground a moment, trying to let himself catch his breath for a moment. Quentin doesn’t follow him into the store, but the sound of talking sounds out all around him.

“I need to get a gun,” he murmurs to himself, missing the feel of his backpack. Clutching tightly onto his knife, Peter sneaks closer to a window to slip out of. Just as his feet hit the ground outside the window, the front door of the store he was just in bursts open.

There’s a gate blocking his way out of the alley, so he slips into the next store. He hides in the bathroom inside as more voices filter in. It sounds like there’s only two, so he stands by the entrance of the bathroom and waits. The sound of footsteps grow closer to him, and after straining his ears a bit, Peter lunges out at the man and stabs him in the neck a couple times before he finally goes down. Peter grabs the gun that clatters to the floor and double checks that there’s ammo before the other one follows the noise that taking him down just made.

Peter repeats the process and steals his bullets as well before slipping out through a hole in the wall. There’s no gate at the end of this one, and he uses the lack of visibility to quietly make his way across the street. Some of the hunters shout out towards one another as they try looking for Peter.

“This place is a maze,” Peter mutters to himself, zipping up his jacket further in hopes of keeping the wind out and keeping himself a little bit warmer.

Running off during a snowstorm does work in his favor, however, so he finds he can’t complain about that. Though it is rather cold, Peter keeps pushing forward through the high winds, the snow easily up his calves. His toes have slowly gotten progressively colder, and he spots a building nearby to hide in temporarily.

The building ends up being an old restaurant with shattered glass and broken boards. It keeps him from the wind, so he can’t complain about the state of the place. The gun is held firmly in his hands as he slowly walks through the restaurant. There isn’t anybody else in there, and he can’t hear any voices, but it never hurts to be cautious.

Sitting on one of the tables is an unused lantern. Rather than question why it’s there in the first place, he lights it and uses the little bit of heat it produces to warm the tips of his fingers. Once they’re warm enough, he picks up the lantern and turns to head towards the front door.

As he’s turning, a loud shot rings out through the room. The sudden sound startles Peter and he’s dropping the lantern onto the floor. Right in front of the door is Quentin, and he’s locking them in.

“Only one of is making it out of here, Peter,” he says. Gone is the calm façade he usually gave Peter. Replaced with irritation that the teen has caused him all of these problems. He takes out his own gun, chuckling darkly. “And it isn’t going to be you.”

Peter’s hands are shaking from where he’s holding onto his own gun. There’s fire licking at his shoes, and he quickly steps back before it can catch. “You’re fucking sick,” he says, keeping his eyes on Quentin.

“And you are very annoying.” Quentin aims his gun and shoots at Peter. Peter quickly dodges and hides behind a nearby table. He can hear Quentin laughing. “So this is how we’re going to play, huh? Better run, little bunny.”

Heart racing in his chest, Peter crawls along the line of booths as Quentin makes his way towards where he last saw Peter. When he reaches the end, he sits there a minute before peering around the corner and shooting at the man. Quentin makes an amused noise and shoots back, forcing Peter back into hiding.

“You’ve got guts, kid,” Quentin continues, not at all bothered by the fire that’s slowly catching along the rest of the building. “You almost had me believing you were infected. But nobody who’s infected fights this hard to stay alive.”

“Asshole,” Peter mutters to himself, rolling to hide behind another row of booths. Breathing is becoming more difficult with the more smoke that fills the air. He spots a window with a crack almost big enough for him to slip through. As soon as he stands to push the board away, Quentin’s shooting at him.

Peter dives away and fires a couple rounds back at him. When he hears the click signalling it’s empty, he curses and throws it right at Quentin. The man easily dodges, and Peter hides once more.

He needs to get the keys from Quentin in order to get out, but he’s not sure if he can get anywhere near the man without getting shot at. When he peeks again, he sees Quentin peeking into the connecting kitchen to see if he can spot Peter. With his back turned, Peter sneaks up to him and jams his knife into Quentin’s shoulder.

Quentin yowls in pain and throws Peter off of him. Peter scrambles back at Quentin shoots at him. He curses when he runs out of bullets and tosses the gun to the side. Peter then watches in horror as Quentin pulls out a machete.

“You are a very annoying pest,” he growls out, swinging at Peter. He’s able to knick Peter’s face, a small line appearing on his face from his eyebrow to the middle of his cheek. Peter’s lucky Quentin didn’t get the blade any deeper, or even get his eye.

Peter sprints towards the lower deck of the restaurant and hides under one of the corner booths. Quentin doesn’t chase after him, and it gives Peter a second to collect himself. “Fucking madman,” he whispers, peering out to try and spot Quentin.

The older man makes his way into the area where Peter’s at and looks under the tables of the booths in the back. When he’s looking under one, Peter slips out from his hiding spot and around a few sets of tables that sit between the stairs and the booths. Quentin doesn’t spot him, continuing on with his search, so Peter rounds the other side of the tables and slowly walks towards Quentin’s open back.

Knife still in hand, Peter lunges and stabs the crook of Quentin’s neck once more. This time, he holds on as Quentin lashes against the attack. He flings himself back onto one of the tables, causing stars to appear in Peter’s vision as his head connects hard with the wooden surface.

The two of them go falling to the floor after that, Peter rolling a bit. As he’s laying there, Peter turns his head and spots the fallen machete under one of the tables. Vision still swimming, Peter crawls towards it and nearly has a hand on it when Quentin’s standing over him, pinning him down.

“You think you can run from me, boy?” Quentin snarls. He grabs a fistful of Peter’s hair to pick up his head and slam it back down onto the ground. His whole face throbbed, blood pouring from the cut on his face and his reaggravated nose. “I was willing to give you a chance in my community. But then you had to go and fuck up.” He slams Peter’s head back into the ground and Peter bites his tongue to keep from crying out in pain at the action.

Quentin flips him onto his back and straddles him. There are hands on his throat that press down hard. Peter’s vision blacks out for a moment as he struggles against the hands. Quentin’s a statue on top of him, pressing his hands down with purpose. Peter flings a hand out and gets a hand around the handle of the machete. With Quentin not paying attention, Peter takes it and hits him hard in the arm. He shoves Quentin’s arms off his neck and rolls them so he’s now straddling the older man.

Running on fear, Peter takes the machete and starts wailing down on the man under him. He’s still struggling to breathe and fear soon turns to hatred as his swings become more purposeful.

“Peter!” a voice calls out, and there’s suddenly hands on his arms, pulling him back.

“Get the fuck off of me,” he says, fighting against them. The machete is no longer in his hands, but he still kicks and wiggles.

“Peter, Peter! It’s just me. Look at me.” There’s hands cupping his face and Peter focuses to see Tony looking back.

“Tony, he tried to—” he gets out before collapsing against Tony’s chest.

“Oh, Pete,” Tony breathes out, holding Peter close.

Peter feels infinitely better as he clings onto Tony, crying hard as everything crashes down on him. There’s blood on his face, and his head is pounding harshly. The fire continues to spread around them, but all Peter can focus on is the way Tony is hugging him tightly.

Peter eventually pulls back, his eyes puffy from crying. Tony gently swipes away at the tear and blood mixed on his cheeks and kisses his forehead. The rush of affection he feels for Tony in that moment leaves him aching.

“Dad,” he whimpers out, unable to help himself.

Tony’s face softens and he presses another kiss to Peter’s forehead. “C’mon, kiddo. Let’s get out of here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> normally im not the type to do pov switches in the middle of the chapter. however, i felt it would've been a little weird if tony just suddenly showed up at the end without any real explanation as to how or why he found him, haha
> 
> <strike>plus the interrogation scene is badass. i hope i did it justice</strike>


	7. spring

Spring is Tony’s favorite time of year. The weather’s just warm enough that the gentle breeze that blows on their faces feels nice combined with the sun shining down on them. Flowers sprout through wherever they feel like it: through cracks in manmade things, or in the large expanses of grass. There’s a sad sort of happiness at seeing them amongst all the clutter and dismay.

Peter’s been quieter lately. Where he once liked to fill the silence with chatter or jokes, now he’s more reserved and keeps to himself. It makes Tony worry about what happened with Quentin before he got to the restaurant. The sight of seeing Peter wail down on the already dead man with a machete is a sight Tony will never get out of his head. He has no doubts Peter has worse memories flickering through his mind.

Peter’s a bright kid, from what Tony’s learned over the year they’ve been together. His mind never seems to stop wondering about things, and Tony slowly got more and more used to answering his many questions. Traveling down the abandoned road now wasn’t the same. The teen was quiet, questions lurking behind the brown of his eyes, yet he never speaks up to ask them.

“One thing I miss most about life before all this was building bots in my lab,” Tony says, catching Peter’s interest. “Harley and I used to build a couple things here and there, but my greatest pride was in these little helper bots. They weren’t the greatest at times, but they were… family, you know? Kinda bummed I had to leave them in Miami.” He sighs softly and looks at Peter, who’s look of awe has yet to fade. “If we’re ever able to figure out how, I think we should test that brain of yours. Maybe build something together.”

Peter looks back at him, surprise on his face. He smiles at Tony, then, and Tony considers it a win.

“I would like that,” Peter says after a moment.

The two of them keep walking until they reach a blocked off intersection. They’re what looks to be a road leading downtown, but was blocked off when the quarantine zone was put into place. There’s a nearby building that looks sturdy enough for them to cut through, likely where people used to officially enter and exit the quarantine zone at one time.

“It’s kind of weird seeing all the moss and whatnot growing on the cars,” Peter comments, letting a hand drag over the hood of a grass coated car. He smiles when he sees a small patch of dandelions growing at the base of the deflated tire.

“Nature didn’t used to run this wildly,” Tony says, standing next to Peter. “It’s only been since the infection hit that it started growing wild. With everybody’s focus on surviving, well. Maintaining lawns was the least of everybody’s worries.”

Peter smirks and fiddles with the necklace around his neck. Tony wants to ask so badly what it means, but he keeps his mouth shut. Peter will tell him when or if he’s ever ready.

When Tony takes a step back, he can’t help but wince a little when he sees the eyebrow nick on the right side of his face. The wound from being cut had healed nicely, but the eyebrow hair never grew back. Just seeing it seems to remind the teen of what he went through.

“C’mon, kid, let’s get to the hospital,” Tony says, gently squeezing Peter’s shoulder.

They have yet to talk about the elephant in the room. Peter hasn’t called him ‘dad’ since the incident and neither seem any closer to bringing it up. Tony isn’t sure if the teen meant it or not, but hearing it stirred something inside him. Old memories of Harley keep flashing up whenever he thinks about it, and every time it does, Tony can see the similarities between the two boys.

He isn’t sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Neither say much more as they walk into the building. On the inside are rusted gates from a long ago attempt at controlling crowds. Some had fallen over through the years, and backpacks and suitcases lay in various places scattered throughout what looks to be an old train station. Peter wanders off towards the old lockers while Tony digs through the old luggage to see if there’s anything of use in any of them.

“Tony?” Peter asks quietly.

Tony nearly doesn’t hear him. When he looks, Peter’s near one of the benches close to where Tony’s searching, playing with the necklace again. He doesn’t say anything else, so Tony walks closer to him, waiting patiently for the teen to collect his thoughts.

“Thank you for, you know… everything,” he says eventually, looking up at the older man with a tentative smile. “I know I haven’t exactly been the easiest person to travel with…”

Tony doesn’t say anything, instead pulling Peter into a tight hug. Peter doesn’t waste any time, and quickly hugs Tony back. Unable to help himself, Tony buries his face into Peter’s soft curls, feeling an overwhelming paternal affection for the teen in his arms. They don’t say anything for a while, instead just standing there holding one another.

Eventually, Tony pulls away from the embrace. He drops a kiss to Peter’s forehead as he does so. “I’ve probably been more of a pain in the ass,” he says lightly, causing Peter to chuckle. There’s tears in the younger’s eyes that he wipes away. “You’re a good kid, Pete.”

“Are you… are you mad for what I called you?” Peter asks softly, looking vulnerable. “Because I know what you said when we had that fight, and then I go and call you Dad, and…”

“Why would I be mad?” Tony asks with a smile. It relaxes Peter minutely. “I’ve always been a dad. Now I just have two sons.”

Peter’s beaming and giving Tony another hug.

“Don’t go abusing the privileges now,” Tony jokes, earning another laugh from Peter.

Tony spots a ledge on the other side of the building and gestures towards it. Without being asked, Peter gets ready to be lifted up onto the ledge to look for something for Tony to climb up. As he grabs a ladder to move, he gets distracted by something outside.

“No way,” he says in amazement, dropping the ladder down to Tony before rushing away.

“Hey, wait for me!” Tony yells, moving the ladder into place and climbing up it.

Peter’s down the hall, staring out the window. He’s got a large smile on his face at whatever he’s staring at. There’s a large shadow that passes by before Peter’s running off again. “Hurry up, you’ve got to see this!”

“Slow down, Pete, I’m coming.” Tony jogs to keep up with the excited teen, only a little disturbed by what the large shadow could possibly be.

It’s the most excited for something Peter’s been since fall. It makes Tony feel a little guilty that he didn’t try harder sooner, but if Peter didn’t seem to harbor any hard feelings towards him, then he supposes he shouldn’t do that to himself.

Peter stops in the doorway of one room, staring in front of him in awe. Tony looks over his shoulder to see a giraffe feeding on some leaves growing off of the building. Since the window’s long since fallen out, it gives them the perfect height to reach out and touch the creature if they so wanted.

Tony gently moves Peter out of the way and slowly heads towards the giraffe. When the giraffe doesn’t run away in fear, Tony reaches a hand out and gently pets its muzzle. He grins over at Peter. “C’mere.”

Peter moves as slowly as Tony did, smile blinding with its intensity as he also pets the giraffe. It eventually moves away, but Peter’s still in a daze. “So cool,” he breathes out.

There’s a door leading out nearby that Peter spots, and he hurries outside. Tony’s more leisurely following behind this time since he knows what Peter’s running after. Outside is a small lookout over a large field where there’s an entire herd of giraffe grazing on trees.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Tony asks, leaning against the ledge next to Peter.

“It’s a great view,” Peter agrees. His excitement’s calmed down since he first spotted the animals, but there’s still a spark in his eyes. He looks far more calm now that he’s watching the herd graze than he did when they first entered the city. “Never thought I’d ever get the chance to see them in person.”

“Life’s unexpecting in that way.” Tony stares down at them in awe as well. The last time he’s seen a giraffe was with Harley at the zoo. Even though that experience wasn’t nearly as calm as the one he’s in now, it was still a sight to see all of the gracious creatures in person.

That very thought leads him to the boy standing right next to him. In many ways, Peter reminds Tony a lot of Harley. Bright minded and got past his metaphorical armor annoyingly easy. Rhodey said, at one point, Tony was just meant to be a dad. He wonders what he’d think now if he knew Peter considers him as a father figure.

“We don’t have to do this, you know?” Tony speaks up after a while of just watching. “We can just… go back to Rhodey’s and live life there.”

Peter doesn’t speak up right away like Tony expected. Instead, there’s a calculating look in his eyes as he looks right up at Tony. “After everything we’ve done? After everything I’ve been through?” he asks, sounding defeated. He then stands up straight, more determined. “It can’t be for nothing.”

Tony doesn’t respond, instead looking back once more at the herd. There’s an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach that he doesn’t know what it’s from. It makes him feel queasy.

“Once we’re done, we can do anything you want to, alright?” Peter asks, breaking through Tony’s thoughts. “We can go back to Rhodey’s.”

Peter moves, then, going from next to him towards another door that leads back inside. Even though a part of Tony doesn’t want to, he follows the teen.

There’s a brief moment of yearning a short time later. They’re strolling through an abandoned bus depot when Tony sighs and sits on one of the rusted benches. Peter walks nearly the rest of the way when he realises Tony isn’t following behind him anymore. Tony’s smirking a little as Peter hurries back over and sits next to him on the bench.

“Why’d you stop?” he asks, raising an eyebrow. Tony still isn’t used to him with the eyebrow nick, but it seems to suit him. He doesn’t look quite as innocent now.

“Just… I remembered something Rhodey said to me in the dam.” He’s fiddling with the zipper on his backpack. “When you were off with Carol, and before him and I found a private place to talk, we stopped in one of the rooms where some of the guys rest between shifts. He, uh… apparently, he went back to Miami about a year or so ago before meeting Carol and Maria at the dam.”

“I thought Miami flooded,” Peter said, furrowing his eyebrows. “With all the rain and whatnot they’ve gotten, I swear I heard it flooded pretty badly.”

“It did, yeah. Nothing Atlantis-like happened, though,” Tony said, laughing when Peter shot him an offended look. “My house was on a bit of a hill anyway. It was ransacked terribly. Pretty sure he even said people broke windows out of spite. Anyway, he went into my office there. Everything but personal items had been swiped.” He finally opens his backpack and pulls out an old photo. It had taken some minor water and sun damage over the years, but overall was in good condition. Tony points to the sandy haired teen in the photo. “That’s Harley.”

Peter gently takes the photo and looks at it for a while. “He has your eyes,” he comments, smiling a little. “Natasha always said brown eyes are deceiving. They look more open and inviting than any other color. Especially green or blue, apparently, which tend to look at sharp as intended.”

Tony laughs. “Believe it or not, I have been told that. Said something about how trusting I look for how mean I can be when I’m pissed off.”

Peter hums softly, tracing over Tony’s face in the photo lightly. “You look so young. Did you have Harley young or something?”

“Yeah, early-twenties. I was lucky enough to already be through college by the time he came around. Mom died in the birth, though. He was one of the best things to ever happen to me, I think.” Tony sighs softly. “I wasn’t in a good place at the time. Slept around a lot, drank a lot of alcohol, the works. But he… he calmed me down. Rhodey always said Harley was like an angel or something. ‘Course that was also before he could talk and turn into a giant smartass.”

Peter laughs. He gestures to the watch. “Is he why you wear that?”

Tony looks down at the watch, gently wiping some dirt off of the face. There’s a fond smile on his face as he looks at it. “Yeah,” he answers after a moment. “My birthday was the day before the infection hit Miami. It’s actually a replica of the one my mom got me long before she died. But that one broke. Harley and Rhodey took the time to have an exact copy made in time to get it for me for my birthday.”

“Is that why you refuse to take it off even though it doesn’t work anymore?” Peter pushes, fingers gently going over the broken surface of the watch’s glass.

Tony doesn’t remember when it happened, but at some point, he was shot at and the bullet hit the glass. What he _ does _ remember, however, is how angry he got after seeing it. All in all, it wasn’t a good day for him.

“Yeah,” Tony answers quietly, smiling as he continues staring down at the broken watch.

Peter plays with his necklace, gently rolling the letter between his fingers. It’s faded and rusted a bit over the years of laying on a dorm room floor for ten to fifteen years— depending on whenever the dorm’s inhabitant left. Peter fiddles with it a lot, and Tony has to bite his tongue whenever he sees the teen doing so.

“I really am sorry about Pepper, Tony,” Peter says quietly. He finally gives the photo back to Tony with a gentle smile. “I didn’t mean to, like, have that happen.”

“Accidents happen, kiddo. I’m sorry for blaming you. Grieving is… a hell of a process.” Tony stares down at the photo, feeling his heart ache at seeing the pure happiness in Harley’s face. It was a photo of the two of them after one of Harley’s science fairs. He didn’t come in first like Tony thought he would, but he was still top three, and that was enough to make their little family ecstatic. Rhodey took the photo and gave it to Tony as a gift that Christmas.

Peter’s watching him silently as Tony eventually puts the photo back into a safe spot where it won’t get bent or torn in his backpack amongst the many other things tucked away in there. 

They sit there for a bit longer before Tony finally gestures for them both to stand and get a move on. While he doesn’t mind baring his soul to the kid, there’s only so much he’s willing to say at one time. Talking about Harley is like opening a treasure chest of repressed feelings and unshed tears. It makes him feel vulnerable. Which, after what happened, is what Peter needs from him. Tony’s always been a closed off person, even before the whole mess with the infection. Rhodey was the first person he let close, and after Harley died, things only got worse… until he met Peter.

The old bus station seems to hold a lot of interest for Peter. Tony can’t blame him. Even in its ruined state, there’s a strange sort of beauty in the old buses and building. Tony doesn’t even have to say anything anymore. Peter’s long learned that if they don’t need to be somewhere at a certain time, they have plenty of time to explore.

Seeing as Peter’s in a better mood than before after seeing the giraffes, Tony lets Peter off on his own, though still within sight. They’ve both developed a bit of a dependency on the need to see one another at all times. Winter really messed with their heads.

“How often did you take the bus?” Peter questions as he walks through one of them. The windows are shattered, and Peter walks carefully to avoid any glass.

“I didn’t really. I either drove or had a driver take me places,” Tony admits. He’s currently sitting in one of the chairs on the bus Peter’s in, watching him in amusement. Many of the advertisements have faded, but Peter keeps thinking of funny things that someone could be selling.

“I’ve always wanted to learn how to drive. Couldn’t really learn in the zone, you know? Bummed me out a bit, not going to lie.” Peter’s smiling as he looks up at another faded sticker. “This one’s advertising a movie. I’ve only watched a handful of them. Whenever I was working with the kids, and the military turned on the generators for a night, we’d sit down and watch them.”

Tony hums softly. He can’t even read what movie Peter’s referring to from where he’s sitting. Likely a Disney movie released around the time the infection started, or was supposed to go out and then couldn’t. Harley might’ve known.

“I haven’t seen a movie since I left Miami,” Tony says. “Not much time, with everything considering.”

“Man, I can’t even imagine how bad the first few years must’ve been,” Peter says with a bit of a laugh. “I mean, it’s still bad now, but it must’ve been chaos then.”

“It was.” Tony runs a hand absentmindedly through his hair. “Especially with all of the military trying to get people to go into the zones and the government shutting down. It was just… utter hell for the first ten years. Things only really started calming down once more and more people kept getting infected and zones were being abandoned. Turns out, shoving a lot of people into one area by force doesn’t exactly pan out the way you want it to.”

Peter snorts. “They still want people in the zones, but that may be more of a control thing than a safety thing. Unless they’re ambushed or overrun, people can hold their own.”

Tony chuckles softly. “And then you have people like Natasha who want government brought back by any means necessary.”

Peter goes quiet, and Tony worries that he may have suddenly overstepped. “Do you think they’ll find a cure? You know, with my immunity?”

“It’s hard to tell, Pete. They’ve been after this for how long now? Who’s to say they haven’t tried it before.” Tony shakes his head. “Sorry for being a downer, but I do have some doubts. I know you still want to go through with this, though, so I’m just along for the ride.”

Chuckling, Peter leans against one of the poles on the bus. “I’m just… I don’t know. I believe they’ll be able to find something. And at this point, it’s too late to turn back, you know? Especially after… everything.”

“Yeah, kid. I know.” Tony’s silent a moment before standing up. “C’mon, Pete. We should get going.”

They come u[ to an underpass that leads the way towards St. Mary’s. It’s filled with abandoned cars, trucks, and buses. Chunks of rock lay all over the place from the bottom of the ceiling, and Tony keeps a close eye on Peter in case any pieces decide to come loose.

Tony stops Peter once they come to a section that’s filled with infected. There’s too many to kill or sneak by, so Tony leads them towards an employee tunnel they can use to go around. As they do so, a clicker comes out of nowhere and attaches itself to Peter.

Peter yells and fights against the monster. Tony takes out his gun and shoots the clicker a couple times before it finally falls to the ground dead. Both men are panting, adrenaline dying as the threat lays dead before them.

“I can’t wait until those things are extinct,” Peter mutters, kicking at it before continuing forward.

Sighing softly and ignoring the clenching in his gut, Tony follows behind.

At the end of the employee tunnel is another street that goes through the same underpass. Unlike the other one, this one has been turned into a river overtime, with a strong current that Tony knows only from seeing before that Peter won’t be able to swim through.

“Follow me,” Tony says, going around Peter and looking for a way across using the vehicles still in the tunnel.

They’re doing well until they get to a bus that ends up being more loose than it looks. Peter was able to make it across, but his moving jostled it. By the time Tony went to jump onto it to make it across, it came loose and started rolling and turning down the current.

“Tony!” Peter yells, but his voice gets lost as Tony falls through one of the windows inside the bus.

Water quickly fills the small space, and Tony swims over to the doors. Peter jumps on top of the bus and pulls at the doors from the other side. Tony wants to warn him to get off, but he can’t without swallowing water. The current once again jostles the bus, and Peter goes flying into the water.

Running on the panic knowing Peter won’t be able to swim in a current this strong, he forces his way through the door and swims towards where he last saw Peter. The boy isn’t moving, and Tony’s heart stops at the sight. He grabs him and starts swimming towards where he can see the road start to incline.

Peter still isn’t moving when Tony pulls him onto the dry road. He isn’t breathing, either, and Tony starts doing chest compressions. “C’mon, Pete,” he mutters to himself.

“Hands in the air!”

Tony looks up and sees two men pointing guns at him. “He’s not breathing,” he said, continuing to do chest compressions.

“Hands in the fucking air!”

Tony ignores them and continues on. One of them approaches already swinging the butt of his gun towards Tony.

When he comes to hours later, he’s laying in a hospital bed. He sits up quickly and sees Natasha sitting in a chair next to his bed. She’s watching him carefully, quiet even as Tony takes in where he’s at.

“You’re looking a lot better than the last time I saw you,” Tony comments, running a hand through his hair. His head is throbbing, but he’s overall okay.

“Sorry about the guard detail,” Natasha says. “They didn’t know who you were.”

“How’s Peter?” Tony interrupts, eyeing the Firefly standing in the doorway.

“They were able to bring him back. He’s being prepped for surgery right now.” Natasha stands up, eyeing Tony. “I thought you guys died on the way. I’ve lost so many men travelling here.”

“Wait, wait. Surgery?” Tony’s on the edge of his bed now. “But the infection grows all over the brain.”

Natasha shoots him a sad smile. “Yeah,” she agrees softly. “It does.”

Tony lets out a huff that sounds like a mixture of a laugh and irritation. “So you’re just going to kill him? What if it doesn’t even work? Huh? You just killed a fifteen year old for no reason.”

“What if it does work, Tony?” Natasha snaps. “Look, I don’t like the thought of him having to die for this, either—”

Tony lets out a laugh, interrupting whatever she was going to say. It sounds fake even to his own ears. “You are so full of shit. You obviously don’t give a damn about that kid if you’re willing to kill him for a cause you aren’t even sure of.”

“I had no other choice!” Natasha yells before shutting her mouth. She takes a deep breath before continuing. “I have seen this kid go through hell, even from a young age. His mother died in birth, then his uncle’s shot by a soldier, and then his aunt gets sick. All before he’s even ten years old. I don’t want this to happen anymore than you do.”

She sounds sincere in her words, but Tony still has difficulty trying to process the words. “Frankly, I still don’t believe you. Who’s guaranteeing this will even work? Him being immune could be a freak of nature. Maybe you won’t even be able to replicate it.”

Natasha clenches her jaw. “That’s a sacrifice I’m willing to take.” With that, she turns on her heel and stalks towards the doorway where she pauses to talk to the Firefly stationed there. “March him out of here. Make sure he doesn’t do anything funny.”

With Natasha fully out of the room now, the Firefly’s face drops into more of a sneer. “You heard her,” he says. “Get moving.”

Sighing, Tony stands out of the bed. The Firefly is watching him closely, gun aimed straight at him. Tony grabs his backpack off the nearby table and starts walking out. He isn’t walking fast enough, and the Firefly shoves him forward. Tony huffs, but keeps moving.

There’s a pad of paper laying on the counter just outside of his room. It looks to be random notes from a doctor that Natasha must’ve left lying there on her way to his room. It makes Tony pause, even when the gun is being shoved into his back again.

“What the fuck are you doing? I said mov—”

Tony elbows him hard in the face, twisting his arm until the gun drops from his grip. Grabbing the gun, he shoves the Firefly into the wall, gun pointed right at his gut. “What floor is the operation being held on?” he demands, digging the barrel of the gun hard into the man in front of him.

“Fuck you,” the Firefly says, making a choking noise when Tony just shoots him right in the gut.

“I don’t have time for this shit,” he growls out. “Tell me where!”

“Top floor, operation room C,” the Firefly gets out.

Tony lets go and backs away, causing the man to go slumping to the floor. Tony then shoots him point blank and double checks the cartridge to see how many bullets were in it.

“I heard shots coming from over here!”

“Shit,” Tony curses, ducking into a nearby room to hide just as two other Fireflies rush past to see what the commotion was.

“The smuggler killed Ethan,” one says, checking over the body. “Find him! Make sure he doesn’t get to the boy! Natasha said to contain him by any means necessary. You know the drill.”

Tony isn’t sure how many Fireflies are on this floor alone. Judging by the amount of flashlights that are going through the hospital’s hallways and rooms in search of him, he’s sure it’s quite a few. Unsure of how much time he has to get to Peter, Tony slinks through the rest of the room to get to the second door on the other side.

Peeking out, he’s met with at least three in the hallway, and another two searching near the office at the end. A pair of double doors meets his gaze, and he guesses it’s the stairway up to the next floor. Getting there means getting past the Fireflies, and he’s fairly certain it will become a bloody battle.

Taking out his knife, Tony walks back to the other side of the room, hiding behind the bed when a Firefly walks into the room. Since he has no one following him in, Tony jumps up and takes him out silently. He makes sure to lower the body quietly so none others would be alerted and want to check the noise out.

With one down, Tony hops out one of the windows back into the hall just as another Firefly enters the room he was just in.

“Fucking smuggler. He’s around here somewhere, guys. Keep a sharp eye out!”

The Firefly peers out the window above Tony and he seizes the opportunity to pull him over and snap his neck. His blood is pumping and there’s adrenaline running through his veins. The desperate need to get to Peter overshadows his clear thinking, and he feels not a lick of sympathy or regret for any of the Fireflies he kills. Natasha doesn’t understand the relationship between Peter and him.

If he turns and heads straight down the hallway, it’s a clear shot to the door he needs to get to. He needs to either kill the remaining Fireflies or distract them somehow so he can get through. He doesn’t want to make a big scene, either. The last thing he needs is for the surgery to be rushed and Peter to be killed before Tony even leaves the first floor.

Fireflies move slowly through the hallway, shining their flashlights everywhere in the hopes of finding Tony. Tony uses the long beams of the flashlights to spot where a Firefly is coming up so he can quickly think of a way to get around them and take them out quietly.

So far, the others have yet to notice as Tony stealthily makes his way through the floors. Mindless killing isn’t something he’s particularly proud of. Even knowing what he’s doing now would make past him fall back in horror. Logically, Tony knows that if he doesn’t kill them, they _ will _ kill him. If not them, then Natasha herself.

He finally makes it to the stairway door. The artificial light shines right in his eyes, and he has to squint to make it through. There’s a chair nearby that he grabs and shoves into the handles of the door. As he’s walking up the stairs, there’s pounding and shoving on the door from the couple Fireflies he didn’t kill.

“Assholes,” Tony mutters under his breath as he heads to the second floor.

The hall outside the stairwell door is clear, but Tony can hear voices in the distance. Following the arrows on the wall’s directions, Tony heads towards the hallway where Peter’s being prepped for surgery. A shot is ringing out, and Tony quickly ducks behind a wall.

“I’ve got eyes on the smuggler. He’s heading towards the operation room,” the man yells towards the other Fireflies gathered on the floor.

Tony slips into a room nearby just in time for two to hurry past the doorway further down the hall searching for him. Letting out a shaky breath, Tony wipes his sweaty palms on his jeans before readjusting the grip on his gun.

“I’m coming for you, Pete,” Tony whispers to himself before moving once more.

There are Fireflies all over the floor, and Tony has a sinking suspicion that it may not be a quiet affair going through. He does his best to avoid noise, however, quietly taking out any he comes across on his way. His heart’s in his throat every time a Firefly nearly catches him, but with so much leftover hospital equipment laying around, he’s able to hide and duck behind cover just in time. A few instances, he even has to grab small objects and throw them in a different direction so he can sneak behind them.

He’s at the door out about to slip through when he’s spotted suddenly. “Get him! Before he gets to the kid!”

Tony slips through and quickly blocks the door with a cart sitting in the hallway. The Fireflies continue pounding at the door, and it’s only a matter of time before they’re able to break through. Quickly spinning on his heel, Tony runs the rest of the way down the hallway. There’s bright lights coming from one of the rooms ahead, and he slows down before approaching.

He isn’t sure why, but he hesitates when he’s reaching for the doorknob. There’s talking coming from within the room, calm as could be. Even with the threat of Tony heading their way, they’re all assured the Fireflies will catch him before he even reaches the operating room.

Twisting the knob and entering inside, Tony’s met with a sight he’s never wanted to see. Peter’s laying out on the table wearing nothing but a green hospital gown. They haven’t shaved his hair yet, but his curls are damp. He’s perfectly still aside from the gentle movement of his chest. Peter isn’t even still when he’s sleeping, seeing him this unmoving is unnatural.

“Stay back!” the doctor yells, tearing Tony from his inner turmoil. The doctor grabs a scalpel and points it straight at Tony. Tony doesn’t even have the politeness to stop the laugh he makes when he sees the tiny knife pointed right at him.

“I’m so terrified, doc. Really,” he says, pulling out his gun. “You should know you never bring a knife to a gunfight.” He pulls the trigger and the doctor crumbles to the ground.

“You’re a monster!” one of the assistants yells. Both are cowering by the wall, staring at him wide eyed from where they stand.

“No, miss. I’m a dad who doesn’t want another child to die on him,” he says.

The sound of Fireflies running towards the room pushes Tony to act quickly. He takes all of the medical tubes out of Peter before picking him up in a bridal carry. Peter’s head rolls onto his shoulder as Tony gets a good grip on the teen and heads towards the opposite door out.

Peter’s dead weight in his arms, and Tony only hopes the kid won’t wake up any time soon and sees what’s going on. His words from Bruce’s have been ringing loudly in his ears ever since he woke up in this damn place. At the moment, he can only hope Peter won’t hate him once he finds out.

Tony’s breath is coming in short, Peter being the only grounding thing to prevent Tony from spiralling into a panic attack. The fifteen-year-old went from an annoyance to the only thing keeping him going in the span of a year. This whole instance is the whole reason why he didn’t want to take on this job in the first place. Hindsight is 20/20, he supposes.

Still, even when he barely makes it into the elevator, Fireflies shouting at others to cut the power, Tony can’t even find it in himself to regret the decision. Rhodey’s been hounding him to settle in one place and quit the smuggling business. Granted, Rhodey meant with Pepper, but times are always changing. Peter’s become his rock, in a way. He’s not sure what he’d do if Peter died in this hospital. For a cause none of them knew would even work.

“Hand him over, and I won’t shoot you.”

Natasha’s voice is eerily calm, even as she’s pointing a gun right at his face. Tony swallows thickly and adjusts his hold on Peter. “You said yourself you weren’t even sure if it would work. I saw the doctor’s notes, Natasha.”

“That isn’t your choice to make,” Natasha says. There’s an edge to her voice now. “What would Peter say, Tony? If he finds out you’ve made this decision for him.”

Tony pauses, the words stinging deep. “You don’t understand.”

“Cut the shit, Tony. I’ve been there as this kid grew up. He’s as selfless as his uncle was.” She takes a breath, calming herself. “This isn’t what he would want, Tony.”

Tony’s conflicted. He knows, _ he knows _, Peter wants to help people. Wants to make the cure. Even so, dying for something that’s not even a guarantee doesn’t sit well with Tony. He isn’t sure he can handle seeing another one of his sons dying in front of him and knowing he could’ve helped.

Natasha slowly sets her gun down, standing back up with her hands up in a peaceful manner. “Look, let’s just—”

She’s cut off when a gunshot rings through the air. The gun Tony hasn’t let go of since he grabbed Peter shakes in his hand a little, but he doesn’t regret the action in the slightest.

There’s a truck nearby that Tony rushes to, opening the backseat and laying Peter down to sleep off the drugs. Once he knows Peter’s safe, he stalks back over to Natasha, who’s sitting on the floor in a growing pile of her own blood.

She holds out a bloody hand. “Please,” she begs. “Let me go.”

Clenching his jaw, Tony just shakes his head. “You’d just come after him.” He holds up his gun at her and pulls the trigger once more.

Tony doesn’t say anything when Peter stirs awake a couple hours later. He groans as he twists and turns on the backseat before sitting up slowly. Rubbing at his eyes and yawning, he pauses when he takes in where he is.

“What the hell?” he asks. Peter then notices his current state of dress. “What am I wearing?”

“We, uh. We found the Fireflies,” Tony says carefully, staring straight ahead at the road. He glances a look at Peter before quickly looking away. Guilt eats at his stomach, and he quickly shoves it further down. “You lost consciousness in the river, and whatever they gave you knocked you out for a while.”

“What about the cure?” Peter asks, face already falling, as if he knew the answer.

“They stopped looking for it.” The lie comes easily off his tongue. Tony hates the way it tastes. “Turns out, there were a couple more like you that they found. They took ahold of a sample and ran tests, but weren’t able to go anywhere with it.”

Peter’s quiet, and when Tony looks in the rearview mirror again, he’s staring out the window. “What about the immune people, then? What happened to them?”

Tony swallows thickly. “The infection grows all over the brain, Pete. In order to get a sample—”

“They would’ve had to kill me,” Peter finishes in a soft voice.

“Yeah, they would’ve,” Tony whispers.

They’re both quiet after that. Tony has a sinking suspicion that Peter sees right through his lie, but is nice enough not to call him out on it. Tony hands Peter his backpack and a set of clothes to change into. All the while, Peter doesn’t say anything else, nor does he make any move to climb into the front seat like he did before.

It’s so wildly different from the last time they were in a truck together. Though Peter still quietly thumbs through his books to pass the time, he doesn’t chatter on about them like he did before. Peter doesn’t even ask for anymore details about what happened in the hospital, and Tony has a difficult time deciding whether that’s a good or bad thing.

The silence in the car is overwhelming, and without any music to play, Tony isn’t sure how to break it. It’s at least a few hours before they get to Rhodey’s dam. The entire spring has been weird for the both of them, and Tony only hopes their relationship hasn’t been damaged any. Especially if Peter was aware of Tony lying about the Fireflies and their cure.

When they finally run out of gas sometime later, they’re a short distance away from the dam. They have to walk a bit, but it isn’t anything compared to all the traveling they’ve been doing for the past year.

Peter’s absentmindedly tracing his bite mark when Tony slows to a stop. He’s shaken out of his thoughts when Tony sighs. “Why’d we stop?”

“Ran out of gas,” Tony explains. “Hope you don’t mind walking the rest of the way.”

“No, that’s fine.” Peter grabs his backpack and hops out of the car. Tony catches a glimpse of the hospital gown shoved far under the seat before Peter’s shutting the door.

Neither of them are in any rush to get there, so they walk at a leisurely pace than they have before. The scenery is gorgeous, and it makes Tony wonder why he always preferred the city before when nature on its own was so beautiful. He remembers a time when Harley tried getting him to go camping with him a few years before he died. Tony brushed off the idea because ‘nature grossed him’. If only past Tony could see his life now.

“I think you and Harley would’ve gotten along,” Tony says suddenly, catching Peter’s attention. “You two are… scarily alike. Sometimes I forget you’re two different people.” He sighs softly. “Both brilliant boys, willing to do what it takes to help others.” Tony suddenly feels choked up. “Some days are better than others, though.”

Peter nods, giving Tony a ghost of a smile before focusing back on where they were going. The wind is gently blowing through his curls, and Tony gets the sudden urge to want to pull him into a tight hug and never let go. He’s been successful is stamping down his paternal urges before meeting Peter. And with everything that happened that winter, he feels it would be wrong to push those feelings down again. Taking into what he did into consideration, Tony finds himself now thinking as Peter as his one source of happiness now. Which, doesn’t sound like a very healthy coping mechanism, but in this life, you need to take what you can get.

Tony helps Peter onto a small cliff overlooking the dam. There’s a path off to the side that leans down into the valley below, but there’s a hand on his arm stopping him from continuing.

“Tony, wait,” Peter says. 

He looks conflicted as he stands nervously in front of Tony. He’s playing with the strings on the sweater and having a hard time meeting his eyes. Peter lets out a huff and turns around a second to compose himself. When he turns back around, he looks more determined.

“Back in Boston, when I was bitten,” he starts. “I wasn’t alone. My best friend MJ was there with me in the mall, and she got bit, too.”

“Peter—”

“Please, Tony,” Peter pleads softly. Tony closes his mouth, and Peter gives him another hint of a smile before pushing forward. “We were playing around with some of the stuff in one of the shops when we must’ve been too loud. There were… so many runners coming after us. We were so scared, Tony, we didn’t know what to do.

“We got cornered. After running for ages, a few slipped through, and they bit us before we could kill them. Seeing the bite marks on the both of us is one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen. I’ll never get the picture of the fresh bites out of my head. I don’t think I ever will.”

Tony swallows around the lump in his throat from Peter’s story. It reminds that Peter is, very much, still a kid. Still young. And there was a point in time when he was sure he was going to die, only for him to pull through. Now everything with Quentin, and then the hospital. Peter’s been through more near-death experiences than a kid his age ever should’ve. Tony also can’t help but get the distinct feeling that Peter carries an overwhelming amount of guilt that he survived when his best friend didn’t.

“MJ and I made a pact,” Peter continues, like if he doesn’t say everything on his mind, he may implode. “That we would, I don’t know, lose our minds together. Go crazy as the infection takes over. I’m still waiting for my turn, Tony. Every day, I wake up, scared that I won’t be the same. That I won’t… be _ me_.” Peter lets out a shaky sigh, blinking away the tears that collected in his eyes.

There’s an unsettling shift in Tony’s conscious. Like Peter knows exactly what to say to hit every nerve firing throughout Tony’s system. There’s an overwhelming amount of guilt. No matter what, though, Tony can’t find it in himself to regret his decision to take Peter out of that hospital. “Pete, I’m… you have to find something to keep fighting for. Something worthy to keep living each day.” The _ that’s what you are for me _ goes unspoken, but it’s still loud in the quiet spring air.

Peter searches his eyes. “Swear to me that everything you told me about the Fireflies is true, Tony.”

Tony doesn’t feel comfortable meeting the teen’s eyes with such a heavy weight lying between them, but he still forces himself to do it. “I swear.” He’s proud that his voice is steady as he says it, but there’s a change in Peter’s eyes after the words leave his mouth. Like he knew Tony was going to say that, but a part of him hoped he wouldn’t.

It takes some time for Peter to reply, and Tony almost thinks he’ll finally call him out on his bullshit. Instead, all he says is, “okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to everyone who's read this fic!! it got more attention and love than i thought it would when i began writing it 💛
> 
> i definitely plan on writing a sequel once tlou2 comes out, so keep an eye out for that sometime next year!! also have plans to write left behind, but that won't be for a little bit while i work on other projects (:
> 
> thanks again for reading and all the support!!

**Author's Note:**

> comments are much appreciated!! 💛
> 
> [my tumblr](http://bibibarry.tumblr.com)   
[my instagram](http://instagram.com/olivxrry)


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